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Published Feb 2012
250 pages
Genre: Mysteries
Publication Information
When P.I. Lena Jones's Pima Indian partner Jimmy Sisiwan is arrested in the remote northern Arizona town of Walapai Flats, Lena closes the Desert Investigations office and rushes to his aid. What she finds is a town up in arms over a new uranium mine located only ten miles from the magnificent Grand Canyon. Jimmy's sister-in-law, founder of Victims of Uranium Mining, has been murdered, but the opposing side is taken hits, too. Ike Donohue, the mine's public relations flak, is found shot to death, casting suspicion on Jimmy and his entire family.
During Lena's investigation, she finds not only a community decimated by dangerous mining practices, but a connection to actor John Wayne and the mysterious deaths resulting from the 1953 filming of "The Conqueror." Gabe Boone, a wrangler on that doomed film, is still alive, but the only person the aged man will confide in is John Wayne's ghost. It's up to Lena to penetrate Gabe's defenses and find out the decades-old tragedy no one in Walapai Flats wants to talk about. By delving into the area's history, Lena learns that old sins never die; they're still taking lives.
As with Desert Wives: Polygamy Can Be Murder, this seventh book in the Lena Jones series exposes real life crimes, and the reason why high-ranking government officials want those crimes to remain under wraps.
Publishing in hardcover and paperback simultaneously
"Starred Review. Webb pulls no punches in exploring another human rights issue in her excellent seventh mystery starring Arizona PI Lena Jones (after 2009's Desert Lost)." - Publishers Weekly
"A perfect example of the mystery-on-a-soapbox, in which the author's moral outrage is more compelling than the fiction designed to convey it." - Kirkus Reviews
"Betty Webb is a tremendous writer... [she] has not only entertained with rousing good mystery stories and terrific characters, but educated by taking on the homeless, the dying, and polygamy." - Roundup Magazine, Western Writers of America
"I've been a fan of Betty Webb's Desert mysteries from the start. With some series, the quality ebbs over time, but Webb's latest, Desert Wind, shows ever-increasing strength. Again Webb uses her expert journalistic skills to explore a shocking topic that private investigator Lena Jones uncovers with masterly resolve. My jaw dropped as I realized the scope and significance of the mystery. Add awesome descriptions of the Southwestern landscape along with powerful emotions, and you have a must-read." - David Morrell, New York Times bestselling author of The Protector and the Rambo (First Blood) series
This information about Desert Wind was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
As a journalist, Betty Webb has interviewed U.S. presidents, astronauts who walked on the moon, and Nobel Prize-winners, as well as the homeless, the dying, and polygamy runaways. The seven Lena Jones mysteries, based on stories she covered as a reporter, include Desert Lost, Desert Noir, and Desert Wives. A long-time book reviewer at Mystery Scene Magazine, Betty is a member of National Federation of Press Women and Mystery Writers of America.
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