Hoodoo

Frankie MacFarlane, Geologist #4

by Susan Cummins Miller

Southeastern Arizona is a tinderbox. Down Under Copper’s plans to explore for minerals pit landowners, worried about their water supply and land values, against those hoping to profit from the mining venture. Someone snaps.In the traditional homeland of the Chiricahua Apaches, an environmental lawyer’s body lies in the burned wreckage of his trailer. As if in retaliation, a DUC executive is shot. Geologist Frankie MacFarlane, her students, and Joaquin Black, an old friend and local rancher, find the executive’s body in a clearing among the volcanic hoodoos of Chiricahua National Monument. And that night, near Paradise, on the eastern side of the mountain range, someone kills an ethnobotanist—a walker and puzzle maker who hasn’t spoken in years.When Frankie, Joaquin, and Joaquin’s brother Raul become suspects in the murders, Frankie must decipher interlocking puzzles to clear their names and to find the killer—or killers—before they strike again. In the process, she discovers that, contrary to geologic principles, the past is the key to the present.Miller weaves together geoscience, Western history and culture, ecology, family, and place into a compelling puzzle mystery narrated in Frankie MacFarlane’s unique voice.

Genres: Mystery

292 pages, Hardcover

First published March 3, 2008

About the author

Susan Cummins Miller is an American author of mystery novels.

Miller was born and raised in Southern California and lives in Tucson, Arizona. Before writing full time, she worked for the U. S. Government (primarily with the U. S. Geological Survey), conducting fieldwork in California, Nevada, Idaho, and Utah. She subsequently taught introductory geology and oceanography at the college level and offered short courses in writing, geology, paleontology, and oceanography in Tucson area schools. Miller is currently a Research Affiliate of the University of Arizona’s Southwest Institute for Research on Women and a SIROW Scholar. Her poetry has appeared in Sandcutters: Journal of the Arizona Poetry Society; Oasis Journal (2003-2008); and the anthology What Wilderness Is This: Women Write About the Southwest (University of Texas-Austin Press, 2007). Miller's mysteries and nonfiction have been published by Texas Tech University Press.

Series:
* Frankie MacFarlane, Geologist

Reviews

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

#4 in the Frankie MacFarlane series. Geology professor MacFarlane takes 4 students on a field trip to the Chiricahua Mountains. Doing the driving is her friend Joaquin, the son of her godparents on whose ranch they'll camp. At their first stop, they find the body of a mining company executive. One of several murder victims in the area for which Frankie , Joaquin, and his brother Raul, will come under suspicion.

Frankie MacFarlane series - Southeastern Arizona is a tinderbox. Down Under Copper's mineral exploration plans pit landowners, worried about their water supply and land values, against those hoping to profit from the mining venture. Someone snaps. In the traditional homeland of the Chiricahua Apaches, an environmental lawyer's body lies in the burned wreckage of his trailer. As if in retaliation, a DUC executive is shot. Geologist Frankie MacFarlane, her students, and Joaquin Black, an old friend and local rancher, find the executive's body in a clearing among the volcanic hoodoos of Chiricahua National Monument.

[Dallass · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had been waiting for my copy to arrive in the mail, and when it did I was so excited to get it. Having read the previous three books I was looking forward to finding out what was happening between Philo and Frankie (more so than the actual adventure she finds herself on) and was a little disappointed in that regard, but the murder/mystery itself was interesting, and with the addition of her students, Frankie once again can't seem to help herself, and sets out to get to the bottom of the murders.

Hoodoo was a fast and fun read (I picked it up after reading A Demon Summer), and I had no problem falling backing into the world of Frankie MacFarlane. Just wish that they were a little bit longer as I don't want to get to that last page.

Can't wait to get my hands on the final two books in the series (to date). I can't believe how expensive these little suckers are! Berkely Prime Crime should not have stopped publishing them ;-D

3.75 ★

[Lindig]

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[Marcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun mystery series. Frankie, the main character, seems to always be finding bodies and her involvement in the how, what and when is very entertaining.