Tracking Bear

Ella Clah #8

by Aimée Thurlo, David Thurlo

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.

Genres: Mystery, Native American, Fiction, Suspense, Westerns

384 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2003

About the author

Aimee and David Thurlo are the authors of the Ella Clah mysteries, the Sister Agatha mysteries, the Lee Nez vampire novels all set in New Mexico. David grew up on the Navajo Indian Nation, and Aimee, a native of Cuba, lived in the southwest for forty years.

Aimée passed away peacefully at her home on the morning of February 28, 2014, after a brief struggle with cancer and related complications. She was attended by her husband of 43 years, David. Aimée was 62 years old.

Reviews

[Annette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love reading a story set in the Navajo nation, with a strong female Navajo lead, and seeing New Mexican references and customs sprinkled throughout.

[JulieAnn · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read! I love this series!

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another great installment in the Ella Clah series. The books shed an interesting view on Navaho beliefs and life in addition to being fun mysteries. It is the 8th book in the series. Read from the beginning the series shows both a growth in the characters and in the skills of the writer. This installment in general presented an interesting view on the Navaho outlook on nuclear power. Despite the devastation that the mining activities had on the tribe, it is still looked at as being a possible salvation of the tribe.

[Carole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book I’ve read featuring Special Investigator Ella Clah of the Navajo Nation Tribal police force in New Mexico. It was a police procedural focusing on solving three murders and also a book that dug into Dineh beliefs and culture and tribal fortunes, politics, and lifestyles. It engaged me from first page to the last, and it was well written with the main characters pretty well drawn. I enjoyed it and will read more of these books.

[Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another enjoyable Ella Clah novel. This one was much more just a good crime novel with little Navajo traditional religion in it. However it ends with the implication that the next installment most likely will once again deal with Ella's conflict with the Navajo witches (skin walkers)

[Mariana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this book. There were no skin walkers or supernatural stuff. I like the emphasis on science and compromise. Although the father of Ella's child doesn't seem to know the word compromise.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like Tony Hillerman's novels about the Southwest but hate the wait time between books, try some of Aimee & David Thurlo's books in a similar vein. Very enjoyable.

[Sarah Haman · Rating 3 out of 5]

As always I learned more about the Navaho reservation and the issues there. I also get to enjoy the mystery :) This time it revolves around the possibility of a nuclear power plant on the rez.

[Nancy Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was less grizzly than some of the previous books have been and I knew at least one of the bad guys fairly soon. But on the last page there is a bit of a twist--what is to come?

[Camilla Harry · Rating 4 out of 5]

great book; love the author / series

[Jeff Dickison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the Thurlo's are not the best writers their stories are generally exciting and interesting. In this one the tribe is divided as to whether or not they should adopt a nucleur power plant. Three murders, seemingly to do with the divide, are committed and Ella and her cousin, Justine, must investigate. Recommended to Ella Clah fans.

[Donald R. Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

fun read indeed

Excellent plot, well done threaded and personal banderiation
Could give a litttle more room to the intellect of the reader in some of the simple bartering.
As a person who was an employee for a few years with Los Alamos county I enjoyed the return.

[Kathy Schouten · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like that it's set in Navajo territory

[joanne schock · Rating 5 out of 5]

really well written and well researched. I learned more about atomic energy, besides three mile island .i am assuming it was kept quiet because of military implications.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Tracking Bear, the spiritual Tracking Bear represents an evil from which there is no escape. It will hunt you down through your dreams, never giving up, never ending, so it's an appropriate image for the uranium mining that forms the center of this story's conflict. Ella Clah and her team are tasked to solve the murder of a fellow Tribal Police officer. Other murders around and without the Rez follow, all seemingly linked to whether a new nuclear power plant should be built on tribal land and the existing uranium mines re-opened, and who will control the new facility.

I was both educated and chilled by the background of a real nuclear plant and actively mined uranium on the Navaho reservation, its mismanagement and devastating aftermath. The book's end contains a twist that can only spell darker days ahead.

[Scilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ella Clah is in the tribal police on the Navajo reservation. A group of people called NEED are trying to get the tribe to build a nuclear power plant on the reservation to earn income for the tribe. There are many opponents to NEED, from environmentalists to those who remembered the deaths of uranium workers on the reservation. When another Navajo policeman is killed, Ella finds out that he has been opposing NEED, as has his father, a physicist who had worked at Los Alamos on classified stuff. Soon there are other murders which appear to be linked to NEED. Ella realizes that Kee Franklin, her officer's father has the links she needs to solve the case, and he has disappeared. Things come to a head as Ella finds Kee along with the two killers.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel in a series of Aimee and David Thurlo was somewhat interesting, but not really the type of mystery I most enjoy. The setting is the Navajo Reservation and Ella Clah is a female detective with the Navajo police. I thought that the parallels to Tony Hillerman's book would make this a series I might enjoy. However, too much of the book content concerns the detective's issues raising her 3 year old daughter, interacting with her mother, the child's father, current love interest, and being involved in the love life of her female partner. Rich relationships make a book interesting, and give the story a good context, but for me Tracking Bear had to much focus on the relationships and not sufficient on the otherwise interesting and well crafted mystery.

[Mary Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

My interest in the Southwest and Navajo culture kept me reading despite frequent irritation with the clumsy prose and obvious writing. No doubts about the "bad guys," who are painted bad from the beginning. But I like Ella Clah, the main character, and stayed with this novel. It's like a friend whose good nature outweighs an otherwise boring personality.

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ella Clah is searching for the murderer of a fellow officer. It appears to be tied into the on-going discussion of building a nuclear plant on the reservation and the changes that it will bring. How does change occur while still walking in beauty?

[Jo-Ann Murphy]

The story moved along and held my interest. But it was not much of a mystery. They why was more of a mystery but it did not really matter. But the culprits were rather obvious from the get go. A nice light read.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Navajo police officer is killed and Investigator Ella Clah tries to solve the case. The reservation is split over the issue of building a nuclear power plant and as more murders occur, Clah believes that everything is linked. The authors are sutlely projecting several liberal political messages.

[Ollie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very similar to Tony Hillerman's except at the beginning the pace of the story drags a little.

[Helen Fleischer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bruno done it --duh!

[The Twins · Rating 2 out of 5]

the insight into the Navajo life was really interesting but the strotyline was a bit lame and s l o w...

[Bj Hoover · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is a really gripping tale in the series, and I enjoyed it all over again!

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Longer than it needed to be. Authors included too many unnecessary details.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't think this is one of the best ones

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typical read; a little slow in the middle.

[Thea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cannot wait to read the next one.