Santa Fe Mourning: A Santa Fe Revival Mystery

Set in 1922, this auspicious series launch from the pseudonymous Allen (the Kate Haywood series, as Amanda Carmack) introduces Madeline “Maddie” Vaughn-Alwin, an artist and war widow who has turned her back on her wealthy New York family for the beauty and freedom of Santa Fe, N.Mex. Soon after settling in, Maddie hires Juanita and Tomas Anaya, a married couple, to help around her new house. When Tomas’s bloody body is found in an alley behind La Fonda, the city’s foremost hotel, the police arrest the Anayas’ rebellious 14-year-old son, Eddie, for his father’s murder. Convinced of Eddie’s innocence, Maddie turns amateur sleuth to prove it. Maddie’s detecting takes her all over town, from poor neighborhoods to posh nightclubs and even the largely forgotten underground tunnels linking plaza stores. Along the way, she meets such real-life locals as Olive Rush, a patron of Native American artists, and railroad magnate Frank Springer. Readers will want to see more of the appealing Maddie, whose next adventure is hinted at in the epilogue. (Mar.)