Postcards from New Mexico

835.  Hello from New Mexico!  

I hope this card finds you happy and healthy.  Megan

73. The Others by Jeremy Robinson

read on my Audible
read by R. C. Bray
Unabridged audio (10:15)
2018 Breakneck Media
314 pgs.
Adult SciFi
Finished  August 6, 2018
Goodreads rating:  3.92 - 801 ratings
My rating:  3
Setting:  Contemporary AZ & NM

First line/s:  " 'You know I don't like coming here, Harry.' Sheriff Godin dusted off his hat, despite its being clean.  'Especially for something like this.  Even more so at this time of night.'"

My comments:  About 40% of this book, maybe more, was horrible gunfighting, hi tech gun fighting.  Yuck.  But the other half was full of building relationships and thought-provoking interpretation of aliens and nano bits that burrow into people's heads (making them capable of all sorts of high technology).  Set in Arizona and New Mexico, driving through the desert in all sorts of crazy vehicles, we accompany a ragtag group of people that are trying to discover the secrets of "the others" who have inhabited the earth secretly for a couple of millennium. I liked that part a lot.  And, believe it or not, this book was full of one man's love for family and kids.

Goodreads synopsis:  UFOs and alien abductions remain one of the most hotly debated and mysterious subjects of the twenty-first century. In the decades since 1960, with reports of strange encounters on the rise, thirteen million people have gone missing worldwide and never been found. The Others takes a fast-paced, unique, and moving look at the phenomenon that has fueled Jeremy Robinson's imagination since several sightings, strange happenings, and visits with renowned UFO investigator, and family friend, Raymond Fowler.

TO SAVE A MISSING GIRL...
          Dan Delgado is a private investigator. When it comes to finding cheating spouses, corporate thieves, or runaway teenagers, he's unenthusiastic, and unmatched. As a former San Francisco detective, he misses more meaningful work, but he hasn't had the heart for it since his wife's death five years prior. That is, until a phone call from a distraught mother. An illegal immigrant who can't go to the police puts him on the hunt for a missing little girl.
          By the time he reaches the mother's small home, she's missing, too. The circumstances are strange, but when a team of heavily armed mercenaries arrive, Delgado is convinced there is more going on than a simple kidnapping.
          Joined by his elderly assistant, a gun-toting pastor, and a UFO enthusiast Uber driver, Delgado follows the clues west, to Colorado City, a town cleaved in two by the 37th parallel, also known as the UFO Highway. In a town infamous for fundamentalist Mormon cult activity, they uncover evidence of a massive child-trafficking ring, whose ringleaders might not be human.
          Delgado and crew are plunged into a dangerous world of corporate competition, UFO lore, and government cover-ups. While they hunt for answers, they're pursued across the Southwest by high-tech mercs, brainwashed cults, and beings whose true identity has been concealed since 1947.

...HE MUST RISK THE WORLD

45. Spider Woman's Daugter by Anne Hillerman

Leaphorn &Chee #19
listened on Audible
read by Christina Delaine
Unabridged audio (9:53)
2013 Harper
301 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 5/15/2019
Goodreads rating:  3.97 - 9354 ratings
My rating:  3.5
Setting: Contemporary Navajo reservation, New Mexico

First line/s:   " 'I get this call out of the blue.  A woman.  First, she reminds me that I saved her life.  Then she says she wants me to do her a favor...' "

My comments:  It took me a long while to get through this one. I listened to it. The narrator spoke with a strong Navajo accent for both Chee and Bernadette.  The pronunciation was slow and drawn out, and it wasn’t at all the voices or accents I’ve had in my head for them. It was too slow — slowed down the action, slowed down their thinking, slowed down the story. I didn’t like it. There were three or four places that 2+2 equaled 15, but it gave them clues in the right direction. Huh? A bit disconcerting. Not the same kind of writing, which is to be expected, but I’ll get used to it and continue on with the series.

Goodreads synopsis:  Legendary tribal sleuths Leaphorn and Chee are back! The supremely talented daughter of New York Times bestselling mystery author Tony Hillerman continues the popular series with this fresh new Navajo Country mystery-her debut novel-filled with captivating lore, startling suspense, bold new characters, vivid color, and rich atmosphere
          It happened in an instant: After a breakfast with colleagues, Navajo Nation Police Officer Bernadette Manualito saw a truck squeal into the parking lot and heard a crack of gunfire. When the dust cleared, someone very close to her was lying on the asphalt in a pool of blood.
          With the victim in the hospital fighting for his life, every officer in the squad and the local FBI office are hellbent to catch the gunman. Bernie, too, wants in on the investigation, despite regulations strictly forbidding eyewitness involvement. Her superior may have ordered her to take some leave, but that doesn't mean she's going to sit idly by, especially when her husband, Sergeant Jim Chee, is put in charge of finding the shooter.
          Pooling their skills, Bernie and Chee discover that a cold case involving his former boss and partner, retired Inspector Joe Leaphorn, may hold the key to the shooting. Digging into the old investigation with fresh eyes and a new urgency, husband and wife find themselves inching closer to the truth with every clue . . . and closer to a killer who will do anything to prevent justice from taking its course.

46. Meet Josefina by Valerie Tripp

First book in the series
1997, Pleasant Company Publications
85 pgs.
Erly Middle Grade Historical Fiction
Finished 8-10-17
Goodreads rating:  3.85 - 3491 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting: 1820's Santa Fe, NM

First line/s: "Josefina Montoya hummed to herself as she stood in the sunshine waiting for her sisters."

My comments: A good, wholesome, story with a seemingly well-researched setting just outside Santa Fe New Mexico in the 1820s.  This is the first in this American Girl series about a New Mexican, Spanish-speaking nine-year-old, the youngest of four girls being raised by their widowed father.

Goodreads synopsis: Josefina Montoya is growing up on a rancho near Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1824. Ever since Mama died a year before, Josefina and her three sisters have been struggling to carry on without her. One bright fall day, happy news arrives--their beloved grandfather is returning home after a long trading trip. Josefina knows that he will bring exciting stories and wonderful treasures from his journey. But this time he brings something more--a great surprise that Josefina and her sisters never even dreamed of!" 

4. Once Upon a Day - Lisa Tucker

audio read by Joyce Bean (beautifully!)

10 unabridged cds, 11 hours

2006, Brilliance Audio

368 pgs.

Adult contemporary realistic fiction

Finished Sunday, Jan. 13, 2013

Goodreads Rating: 3.62

My Rating 4/Liked it a lot

Acquired: PBS

Setting: Contemporary St. Louis, rural New Mexico, and LA (with 1980's Hollywood flashbacks)

My comments: Once I started listening to this book, I couldn't stop. I usually don't like a story that switches from one character to another, but Tucker has done it very effectively here. Joyce Bean reads it with sensitivity and nails the 23-year old's voice perfectly...perhaps her reading enhanced the entire book for me? I liked it a lot.

Goodreads Review  Nineteen years ago, a famous filmmaker disappeared from Los Angeles, taking his two children, Dorothea and Jimmy, to a desolate corner of New Mexico. There he raised them in complete isolation without television, computer, radio -- not even a newspaper. Now, at twenty-three, Dorothea leaves in search of her missing brother -- and ventures into the outside world for the first time. Her search becomes an odyssey of discovery when Dorothea meets Stephen Spaulding, a cab driver dealing with his own mysterious history. With him as her guide, Dorothea uncovers the truth of her family's past and the terrifying day that changed her father forever. Together, they have a chance to discover that although a heart can be broken by the tragic events of a day, a day can also bring a new chance at love and a deeper understanding of life's infinite possibilities