Tracking Bear (Ella Clah) [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

Aimee Thurlo (Author), David Thurlo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2003

A group of businessmen is working to open a uranium mine and nuclear power plant on the Navajo Reservation. The NEED project will provide cheap power to the Navajo nation, employ many who are out of work, and earn income for the tribe by selling surplus power to Arizona, New Mexico, and other western states. Investigating the murder of a Navajo cop during a break-in and robbery, Navajo Police Special Investigator Ella Clah learns that the dead man's father, a retired physicist, is strongly opposed to uranium mining and nuclear plants.

Ella's mother, Rose, opposes the plans as well, taking as her cause the health of the workers and the land. Kevin Tolino, the father of Ella's daughter, hires a bodyguard after receiving threats because of his public support of the project. A Navajo community college teacher is assaulted, and his office and home ransacked-apparently by the same person who murdered the Navajo police officer.

A tribal official who opposes NEED is murdered. Clues seem to lead to a major supporter of the nuclear project, but the man insists he's being framed. Other area murders are also linked to NEED supporters-but why would a group of wealthy businessmen kill their opponents when they could just outspend them? There has to be more going on than political wrangling, but Ella is fumbling in the dark, with uncooperative witnesses and few clues.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The suspense never lets up in the Thurlos' eighth mystery to feature Navajo Special Investigator Ella Clah (after 2002's Changing Woman), which opens with the murder of a police officer whose backup call is unanswered because of the defective equipment of the pathetically underfunded Tribal Police. Funding issues for the department and the tribe as a whole have the community divided about allowing uranium mining on the reservation. While one group touts the positive financial benefits, opposing forces remind the tribe of earlier mining efforts that poisoned their people and their land. As vandalism, threats and more dead bodies pile up, Ella works frantically to find the source of the crime spree. When she learns that the dead officer's father once worked with the highly classified government experiments at Los Alamos, the fog begins to clear and the stakes become terrifyingly high. The Thurlos weave in a lot of personal background, insights and conflicts for both Ella and her family. Adding further tension is Ella's commanding officer's insistence that her team complete a training course headed by an Anglo woman who seems willing to stop at nothing to make Ella look bad. Toss in Ella's traditionalist mother and brother, sinister skinwalkers and a handful of political bribe-takers, and you have another surefire winner in a durable series.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-When a young police officer's death comes under investigation, Navajo Special Investigator Ella Clah finds that faulty equipment played a major role in his demise. The underfunded Tribal Police can't update or repair anything due to the same financial problems beleaguering the entire tribe. Looking for funds, the tribe begins seriously researching a plan to build, own, and operate a new type of nuclear plant, but the fear of uranium mining divides people. After other deaths occur, links form between the murders and the mining issue. Cultural differences between the traditional and modern Navajo way of life show up in every description, from details of daily life to the science of forensics and uranium mining. Ella and her family serve as major examples of this cultural push and pull. An ex-FBI agent, she finds herself using sophisticated forensics to help solve the murders while realizing that she still seeks the Navajo Path to Walk in Beauty. With almost nonstop action and plenty of complications, this eighth Ella Clah title offers yet another skillfully mixed and expertly designed story.
Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• ISBN-10: 0765304767
• ASIN: B000F6Z9F0
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,149,796 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great police procedural, April 12, 2003

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tracking Bear: An Ella Clah Novel (Ella Clah Novels) (Hardcover)

Money is scarce on the Navaho reservation and the lack of funds in the police department means less officers and increasingly faulty and out of date equipment. Officer Frankin calls in a possible burglary in progress and requests help but the broken radio stopped working before he can give a location. By the time Ella Clah, the officer in charge of the special investigations unit, finds him, he is dead with a bullet in his brain.

It is clear that money is needed to upgrade the equipment and hire more officers. NEED (Navaho Electrical Energy Development) thinks they have the solution to the problem. They want to build a small clean nuclear power plant on the reservation believing it is a step in making the tribe self-sustaining. There is a large segment of the Navaho population that doesn't want anything to do with the project and those who are adamantly opposed to the project wind up dead or shot at. It looks like the NEED forces are turning militant but Ella suspects a cold-blooded killer is making it look that way while pursuing a personal agenda.

TRACKING BEAR is a great police procedural that gives readers an insightful look into the culture of the Navaho living on the reservations today. The novel displays the schisms in the tribe between the traditionalists and the modernists as well as the new traditionalists. The who-done-it is complex, compelling and exciting with a plethora of suspects from a grieving father to a Navaho activist. Aimee & David Thurlo have written another fascinating installment in this popular mystery series.

Harriet Klausner

5.0 out of 5 stars Tracking Bear, March 13, 2011

By 

Pat W. Sprowls - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tracking Bear (Ella Clah) (Hardcover)

Book arrived in condition as described and in a timely manner. Now series is complete on the library shelves.

5.0 out of 5 stars Tracking Bear, June 26, 2007

By 

Nellie Bly "Reader" (Chicago) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tracking Bear: An Ella Clah Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

Wonderful, well told story. Am fascinated by human records before the printing press and internet.