Private investigator Lena jones has never had a typical day, but in her latest outing in Desert Redemption, she almost does. As the book opens, she has finally found lasting love, and is living with Jimmy Sisiwan, her long-time Pima Indian partner. Desert Investigations, their shared Scottsdale AZ company, is running smoothly. Even better, for once none of their friends are in jail. But during Lena’s early morning ride across the Salt River Pima/Maricopa Indian Reservation on her new Appaloosa, she finds a woman’s body.

All illusions of normalcy end.

The woman is skeletally thin, yet looks peaceful as she lies there among the cacti and roadrunners. In a way, the woman reminds Lena of a dead woman found just a few days earlier outside the northern boundary of the Rez, only yards from the luxurious Talking Stick Resort and Casino. From everything Lena had heard from Sylvie, her Scottsdale Police Detective friend, the other woman had been thin, too. Lena immediately suspects that both deaths are related.

After calling the Reservation police and making a formal statement, Lena attempts to return to what had once seem like a normal day, but it’s a losing proposition. Instead of helping Jimmy work on their new house on the Rez (the plumbing is finally going in) she drives to their office in Scottsdale, still feeling more at home there than on the Rez. But home and business coincide when Harold Slow Horse drops by and begs Lena to investigate Kanati, a spa-type rehab center he suspects is a cult. His ex-wife Chelsea has checked herself into Kanati for treatment, but Harold believes she is being taken advantage of.

Jimmy has no problem freeing Lena from her house-building activities, so she drives through the desert to the old movie set where the Kanati Spiritual Center has set up shop. At first glance, Kanati doesn’t seem all that cultish, just another Anglo rip-off of true Native American customs and beliefs. But while exploring the place, Lena does hear of EarthWay, another odd community that appears to be mired in the old ‘60s Hippie communal ways., right down to the women’s long hair, long dresses, and the groups’ emphasis on untreated water and organic gardening.

Then another emaciated body pops up near the Pima Rez. This time a man has obviously starved to death. His autopsy, as well as autopsy results on the two women, all show the same cause of death: coronaries caused by extreme malnutrition.

And yet all their faces had looked so peaceful in death

When Lena discovers that Harold Slow Horse has hired a cult “deprogrammer” to kidnap his ex-wife from her happy teepee at Kanati, Lena’s busy investigative day speeds up into hyper-drive. All house-building is put on hold as Lena attempts to find the kidnapped woman. As if that isn’t a big enough problem, Lena then finds out that her fifteen-year-old god-daughter has run away with her boyfriend, and that the two are headed for Mexico.

How can a woman – even such a gifted, courageous woman like Lena Jones — have a typical day amid such craziness? At the calmest of times, Lena has never been the calmest of people. Who would be calm after enduring a childhood spent in foster homes, and an adulthood searching for the mother her abandoned her?

Lena had entered “Desert Redemption” believing her frantic life has finally turned around. Securely in love with her loyal partner, she envisioned a quiet life on the Rez in their new home with their two horses and four cats. She’d been certain the craziness of the city would be kept at bay among the wildness of the Sonoran desert. She thought she’d finally found peace.

But in her saner moments, Lena realizes that peace might an iffy thing. After all, Jimmy – a man who had always accepted the rough mercies of life – once told her, “Oh, Lena, you’re so busy trying to save other people you’ve never taken time to save yourself.”

You can read more about Lena in Desert Redemption, the tenth book in the “Lena Jones” mystery series, released March 12, 2019.

At the age of four, Scottsdale private eye Lena Jones was shot in the head and left to die on a Phoenix street. After her rescue, she spent years in the abusive foster care system, never knowing who her parents were and why they didn’t claim her. When Desert Redemption begins, she still doesn’t know her real name.

Lena’s rough childhood―and the suspicion that her parents may have been members of a cult―keeps her hackles raised. So when Chelsea, the ex-wife of Harold Slow Horse, a close friend, joins a “new thought” organization called Kanati, Lena begins to investigate. She soon learns that two communes―polar opposites of each other―have sprung up nearby in the Arizona desert. The participants at EarthWay follow a rigorous dietary regime that could threaten the health of its back-to-the-land inhabitants, while the more pleasure-loving folk at Kanati are dining on sumptuous French cuisine.

On an early morning horseback ride across the Pima Indian Reservation, Lena finds an emaciated woman’s body in the desert. “Reservation Woman” lies in a spot close to EarthWay, clad in a dress similar to the ones worn by its women. But there is something about her face that reminds Lena of the Kanatians.

While investigating, Lena’s memory is jolted back to that horrible night when her father and younger brother were among those murdered by a cult leader named Abraham, who then vanished. Lena begins to wonder if either EarthWay or Kanati could be linked to that night, and to her own near-death. Could leaders of one or both shed light on what had happened to Lena’s mother, who vanished at the same time as Abraham?

All these mysteries are resolved in Desert Redemption, the tenth and final Lena Jones case, which can also be enjoyed on its own.

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About the author
Betty Webb is the author of ten Lena Jones mysteries (Desert Noir to Desert Atonement) and five Gunn Zoo mysteries (The Antheater Of Death to The Otter Of Death). For 20 years Betty worked as a journalist, interviewing everyone from U.S. presidents, astronauts who walked on the moon, and polygamy runaways. A nationally-syndicated literary critic for more than 30 years, she currently reviews for Mystery Scene Magazine.

You can find Betty at bettywebb-mystery.com.

All comments are welcomed.