Wild Indigo

At the start of Ault's strong debut, agent Jamaica Wild of the Bureau of Land Management is shocked to see Jerome Santana, a member of the Tanoah tribe of northern New Mexico, trampled to death by a herd of buffalo. It looks like suicide, but Jamaica suspects Jerome had been unwillingly drugged. A tribal elder and a child who also witnessed the fatal stampede go missing, and the authorities blame Jamaica for causing the death she tried to prevent. Jamaica combines a stubborn independent streak with an equally powerful longing to belong—a longing that finds expression in both her touching devotion to her wolf pup, Mountain, and in her warm ties to the Tanoah community and her mentor and medicine teacher, Momma Anna, Jerome's mother. Tinged with mysticism, this artfully told story should appeal to fans of Nevada Barr's National Park Service ranger Anna Pigeon as well as Tony Hillerman's Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee series and Margaret Coel's Wyoming Wind River Reservation novels. (Jan.)