Montezuma's Fire

Book excerpt: With the Democratic Primary three weeks away, Sheriff Cliff Lansing is facing a serious contender. Councilman John Tapia is well-financed but lags in the polls. He digs into his bag of dirty tricks. Enlisting the aid of his cousin and an unsuspecting State Bureau of Investigation, Tapia becomes a threat to Lansing’s job and his very freedom. Tina Morales returns from a two-month visit to Nogales, Mexico. She brings with her a beautiful porcelain doll . . . a doll her grandmother, Naomi, fears. The teacher doesn’t realize she will unleash an ancient terror, threatening San Phillipe County and Santa Clara Pueblo. Lincoln Baca gets devastating news that will end his firefighting career. Angry and depressed, his uncle advises him to seek guidance from the ancestral Kachinas. Lincoln goes into the wilderness on a vision quest. He discovers an ancient legend that may rescue him as well as save his Pueblo. Jeremiah Black, a Cherokee Indian from Oklahoma, establishes his Native American Reform Church north of Segovia. Using the hallucinatory peyote cactus as a sacrament, his church gets unwanted attention from members of the Lowrider community. A dangerous situation arises, and the minister has to make a tough choice. Problems mount . . . the election, a wife who shoots her husband claiming self-defense, young women killed in hit-and-run accidents possibly by a serial killer, and Tina’s doll. When Tina asks Lansing if he’s having a bad day, he can only respond, “No, not bad . . . just typical.”