17. Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

The Sixth World #1
listened on Audible (8:58)
read by Tanis Parenteau
2018 Saga Press
287 pgs.
Adult Fantasy/dystopia
Finished 2/11/2019
Goodreads rating:  4.12 - 5367 ratings
My rating:  3
Setting: Navajo reservation in the near future
A great review is in The Quiet Pond blog.

First line/s:  "The monster has been here.  I can smell him."

My comments:  I have mixed feelings about this book because I didn't totally understand it.  I could follow a lot of the mythological Navajo/Dineh superstitions of monsters and witchcraft and clan magic, but not enough of it to fully understand what was going on all the time.  I used my imagination as much as I could, but there are still a lot of gaps/holes in my understanding of the plot.  I'm glad I read it, but I don't think I'll read any more.  I listened to the to this on audio, and it was really well read.

Goodreads synopsis:  While most of the world has drowned beneath the sudden rising waters of a climate apocalypse, Dinétah (formerly the Navajo reservation) has been reborn. The gods and heroes of legend walk the land, but so do monsters.
          Maggie Hoskie is a Dinétah monster hunter, a supernaturally gifted killer. When a small town needs help finding a missing girl, Maggie is their last—and best—hope. But what Maggie uncovers about the monster is much larger and more terrifying than anything she could imagine.
          Maggie reluctantly enlists the aid of Kai Arviso, an unconventional medicine man, and together they travel to the rez to unravel clues from ancient legends, trade favors with tricksters, and battle dark witchcraft in a patchwork world of deteriorating technology.
          As Maggie discovers the truth behind the disappearances, she will have to confront her past—if she wants to survive.
          Welcome to the Sixth World.

8. At Ease With the Dead - Walter Satterthwaite

Joshua Croft #2
University of New Mexico Press, 1990
paper $9.95
237 pgs.
Rating: 5

A very fine mystery, taking place in Santa Fe, NM; El Paso, TX, and Navajo country, Arizona and New Mexico. Joshua Croft is a private investigator who functioned without cellphones or the internet, since the book was written over 20 years ago. Really well crafted, an interesting suspenseful tale.

Joshua Craft and Rita Mondragon run the Mondragon Investigation Agency together, although Joshua does all the "legwork." Rita's in a wheel chair and never....ever....leaves her house on the side of a mountain overlooking Santa Fe. The story begins with Joshua Meeting a wise old Navajo man named Daniel Begay while camping and fishing in northeastern New Mexico. They bond. And awhile later, Begay comes to him with a 65-year old mystery that is almost all dead ends, since almost everyone that could answer any questions is either dead or in their 80's. But Joshua proceeds, meeting fascinating people in El Paso and seeing first hand the trepidation that Navajos have for non-Navajos.

There's fighting and killing, with a little detail that's uncomfortable, but not enough to stop me from giving this a top-notch rating. I didn't read the first in the series, but I've ordered the second and can't wait to receive it.