Four mysteries to read this month with ties to Colorado or the West

“Double the Lies,” by Patricia Raybon (Tyndale)

Denver author Patricia Raybon’s amateur sleuth Annalee Spain was an instant hit in Raybon’s first mystery, “All That is Secret.”  Annalee is a 1920s detective, a black woman who lives in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood and must deal not only with crime but with racial prejudice. After all, this is the heyday of the KKK.

In “Double the Lies,” the second mystery in Raybon’s series, Annalee befriends a crying white woman she encounters in the library, lending her a handkerchief, then accompanying her home.  There, the two discover the body of the woman’s husband, a barnstormer.  Police find Annales’s handkerchief and want to pin the murder on her. But an officer says he’ll hold off arresting her if she can if she can find the real killer. She’s given only days.

Solving the crime takes Annalee to a Denver airshow.  When police spot her, she hides in an airplane, only to become the reluctant passenger when the pilot takes off for Estes Park.  The pilot is the brother of the dead man, and he is smitten with Annalee.  Annales is drawn to him, too, although she is promised to Jack, a preacher.  Jack, however, has disappeared.

“Double the Lies” is an intriguing mystery, with lots of twists and turns that take Annalee by air to Estes and eventually Telluride. What makes it so engaging is not just the story but Raybon’s depiction of the chilling life of a black woman in the 1920s.  Every aspect of Annalee’s life is dictated by her color. She wants to find out about some paintings but can’t go to the Denver Art Museum because it doesn’t admit blacks.  Her relationship with the white pilot beings the wrath of the Klan. She could be found guilty of murder with no more evidence than a handkerchief.  Raybon’s book is not just a mystery but a study of what life was like for a black woman in 1920s Denver.

“Stealing,” by Margaret Verble (Mariner Books)

Nine-year-old Kit Crockett is dealing with her mother’s death when she meets new neighbor Belle.  Kit, who is half Cherokee, and Belle, who is supported by two “boyfriends,” quickly become friends.   When a vicious neighbor intervenes in their friendship, Kit finds herself involved in not one murder, but two.

Her beloved father is jailed, and Kit winds up living with a fanatical preacher and his wife.  The preacher slaps her when she won’t agree to be baptized, then sends her to Ashley Lordard, a religious boarding school.  The girls there are stripped of their Indian heritage, force-fed Christianity and sexually abused.

In “Stealing,” author Margaret Verble tells the story chronologically but weaves the Ashley Lordard experience throughout the narrative.  Kit tells the story, or rather she writes it down in a notebook, in her closet at Ashley Lordad.  The closet is the only place Kit feels safe from the school’s predatory principal. Yet this is not just a tale of abuse and ill treatment of Native Americans.  Kit’s family is loving.  They use humor to soften the prejudice they experience. Verble, a Cherokee and Pulitzer Prize finalist, creates a compelling character in Kit.

Set in the 1950s, with glimpses of mid-century culture (DeSoto cars and Dr. Dolittle books), “Stealing” is a beautifully written account of a bi-racial girl trapped in small-town prejudice.

“Deaf Row,” by Ron Franscell (Wildblue Press)

Woodrow Bell is a retired Denver police officer and member of a group of old geezers who gather each morning for breakfast at a café in Midnight, Colo.  When a priest and member of the group suggests Bell look into a decades-old murder of the daughter of another old guy. Bell says no.  But meeting the father, who has dementia, Bell is moved by the man’s need to know who killed and mutilated the girl.

He reluctantly takes on the case, only to realize that the killer didn’t murder just one girl.  As he digs further, Bell discovers he’s dealing with a serial killer, and one who may still be alive. Bell lacks the resources to investigate the case, so he leans on his old partner to identify DNA and search data bases for similar killings.  And he calls on his Deaf Row buddies for help in plowing through mountain snow in search of kill sites.

The “Deaf Row” boys show that age doesn’t interfere with action when it comes to solving a crime.  The geezers soften the horrendous nature of the killings with their antics, including a line-up that begs to be part of a movie.  Author Ron Franscell, who writes both fiction and nonfiction, creates an endearing group of old men in a gripping story of a psychotic killer.

“The Sacred Bridge,” by Anne Hillerman (HarperCollins)

Sgt. Jim Chee is vacationing near Lake Powell, hoping to find a sacred cave his mentor, Joe Leaphorn, told him about, when he discovers a body floating in the lake. The dead man is Curtis Walker, a Navajo and popular boat guide.

The Lake Powell authorities enlist Chee’s help. Interviewing Navajos as well as a popular archeologist will aid in solving the mystery, but also will allow Chee to ask about the location of Leaphorn’s cave.

Long-time readers of the popular Leaphorn-Chee series (started by Tony Hillerman and continued by his daughter Anne) will remember that Chee once studied to become a medicine man. Now Chee hopes that his pilgrimage to the cave, which has an ancient sand painting still in place, will help him make decisions about his future. But first he must put himself in danger by finding out Curtis’s killer.