Barbara R. (Crop4Fun) reviewed Dynamite Pass (An Angela Biwaban Mystery) on + 1217 more book reviews
Trainor's ( Target for Murder ) second Angela Biwaban mystery returns the shallow and vain Native American princess to her family's Utah home, where greedy loggers have placed more than trees at risk. Angie's cousin Billy, a forest ranger and Ute tribal council candidate, is waging a legal battle to transfer federal forest acreage into tribal hands in order to save the land from clearcutting. While Billy is a friend to the land, he has many enemies--a fact that soon proves fatal. Naturally, there are many suspects in Billy's slaying, including good ol' boy millionaire Cue Broward; stuffy Mormon patriarch Truman Sager; dim-witted, sadistic lawman Ty Braddock; local bad seed Jack Sunawavi; and a host of other Utah Saints and sinners. So it's up to Angie, a self-described clothes horse who fancies herself a combination of all three of Charlie's Angels, to go undercover to reveal the identity of her cousin's killer. Still, the tale is enriched by Trainor's keen eye for the story's desert southwest setting, and understanding of the interplay between the Latter-Day Saint and "Gentile" communities.
Angie Biwaban is a tough Native American detective from Duluth. She's on the wrong side of the law - and the right side of justice. When you're a convicted embezzler who's just served three years in a South Dakota women's prison, life's mostly about keeping one step ahead of your parole officer. If you also happen to be an Anishinable princess names Angela Biwaban who's come to northern Utah for a family powwow in the sweltering heat of midsummer, things can really start to sizzle. Especially when her cousin Bill Shavano, a Shaguache County forest ranger is killed in a suspicious accident. But investigation the crime - undercover of course - can be a revealing lesson in graft and corruption. And for an ecologically aware sleuth out to save endangered Lodestone Canyon from a sleazy lumber king and a greedy big-tine developer, it can also prove deadly. Which leaves Angie only one option - work a con to beat out the bad guys and catch a killer before a scorcher of a case blows up in her face and explodes in one more fatality - hers!
