The Dark Canyon

Brutal deaths, nasty academic intrigues, a 100-year-old journal and a precious amulet draw New Mexico sheriff Cliff Lansing into this fourth adventure (after The Shadow Catcher). A 15-year-old shepherd is mauled to death in the hills near Las Palmas. At about the same time, a famous archeologist at the University of New Mexico is found murdered in his office, and Joel Conrad, his graduate student protege, disappears. As these events unfold, Sheriff Lansing calls on scholars to interpret his great-great-grandfather's 1871 journal. The story that emerges from the old journal is a tale of treachery and perhaps mystical power that spans a century. The novel lacks sparkling prose and dialogue, but excels in the historical background that drives the multilayered plot. (Nov.)