cover image The Pawnbroker

The Pawnbroker

David and Aimée Thurlo. Minotaur, $25.99 (304p) ISBN 978-1-250-02798-6

This bracing series debut from the Thurlos (Ghost Medicine) introduces Charlie Henry, a reservation-born Navajo, and Gordon Sweeney, raised in a rough Denver neighborhood. When the two Iraq/Afghanistan vets decide to buy the Three Balls Pawnshop in Albuquerque, N.Mex., they hire Henry’s lawyer friend, Gina Sinclair, to pay the previous owner, Diego Baza, cash for the combination to the store’s big safe. During the exchange, Baza is gunned down and Sinclair badly wounded. Henry and Sweeney set out to avenge Sinclair, not trusting police detectives to solve the crime, though her lover, Sgt. Nancy Medina, helps with inside information. The pair engage in plenty of gunplay as their digging into Baza’s shady dealings leads to encounters with gangs, a pawnshop employee with a mysterious past, and a slippery, glib-tongued thief. Thurlo fans should be prepared for less Native American ambience than in the Elah Clah series. Agent: Peter Rubie, Fine Print Literary Management. (Jan.)