Death of a Healing Woman: A Texana Jones Mystery - Hardcover

The borderland between Texas and Mexico along the Rio Grande comes alive in this absorbing debut featuring Texana Jones, the owner of a trading post, and her veterinarian husband, Clay. Jones doesn't believe that her best friend, Maria Ortega-Deed, and her husband were killed by drug smugglers. So, when reclusive Rhea Fair, a curandera or healing woman, is found murdered in a similar manner, Jones is determined to get to the bottom of it. Fair, once owner of a large ranch, became a healer and herbalist after her sons were arrested for drug smuggling and fled across the border to Mexico while out on bail. Just before Ortega-Deed died, Fair had gone to her for some kind of legal advice. Fair, afraid of a client with the evil eye, had also seen a clairvoyant and had sent off a long letter only days before she was murdered. Jones tracks down the identity of Fair's last client, a journalist, now also missing, who was writing a book about the curandera.Getting help in her investigation from both sides of the border, Jones must also deal with her husband's campaign to stem a rabies epidemic, and with multimillionaire rancher Robert Darke's plans for a lavish fiesta and the archeological project he is financing on his property. Martin populates Jones's tiny hometown of El Polvo with hardworking, goodhearted eccentrics and farmers, all richly portrayed in a series sure to be a winner.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Set in the Chihuahuan Desert of Presidio County, Texas, on the Mexican border, this intriguing tale beautifully evokes not only the stark landscape but also the vibrant flavors of the area's Tex-Mex culture. The story features Texana Jones, owner of El Polvo's all-purpose trading post, who has recently returned to her hometown after an unsatisfying sojourn in the larger world. There is bad trouble at home when two friends and now a third, a respected curandera, or healer, are murdered, presumably because of their accidental run-ins with drug smugglers. It is not a solution that satisfies Texana, especially when connections among the three victims suggest another motive. Equally frightening is an outbreak of rabies in the area; the threatened epidemic actually provides an unlikely final piece in the crimes' solution. Although the story's climax falls a bit flat, this first novel offers an excellent sense of place and strong characters. Martin is a significant new voice in the genre. Stuart Miller