The Other Side of Death: A Neil Hamel Mystery
by Judith Van Gieson
from University of New Mexico Press
The “annual” Saint Patrick’s Day party hosted by Tim and Jamie Malone in their small northern New Mexico community is their first in many years. But it also marks their last as they prepare to move to the Midwest. For Albuquerque attorney Neil Hamel, going to the party is a reunion of sorts with various old friends she spent a year carousing with in a small town in Mexico in the late 1960s. Just about everyone seems to have made some move from hippie to mainstream except Lonnie Darmer, who—as in the old days—gets too drunk to drive home. Neil drives them both to Lonnie’s little house in Santa Fe and wakes the next morning to discover her missing. Lonnie is found dead in an Anasazi ruin in the mountains near Santa Fe, her body unscathed.
The police immediately conclude Lonnie committed suicide, and her friends seem almost relieved to concur—all except Neil. As she investigates her friend’s death, suspects suddenly abound. Even Neil herself comes under suspicion, as the real killer draws ever closer, eager to satisfy a newfound appetite for killing.
Confidence Woman: A Claire Reynier Mystery
In Confidence Woman, the third Claire Reynier mystery, the use and abuse of identity entangle Claire in a murder for which she becomes the prime suspect. Claire�s struggles to prove her innocence plunge her into a treacherous and ever-shifting quest to figure out who people really are.
Claire�s troubles begin because she helped a down-on-her-luck friend from college, Evelyn Martin, who asked to stay with Claire while deciding where to live and what to do following the loss of her job in Denver. A short time later Claire realizes she�s the victim of identity fraud and thinks Evelyn might be the perpetrator. Not long after, police find the decomposed body of Evelyn in a house she rented in a desirable Santa Fe neighborhood. Also discovered are credit cards with Claire�s name on them�along with credit cards and personal items stolen from three other women Claire and Evelyn knew at college. A rare signed first edition of Herman Melville�s The Confidence-Man, missing from Claire�s house, is not among the items recovered by police.
When a witness tells police about an argument she saw the evening of the murder, and the description fits Claire, suddenly all the twists of fate seemed aligned against her. To establish her innocence, Claire draws on her expertise as a librarian at the University of New Mexico�s Center for Southwest Research, contacts with rare book dealers, and her ability to see through pretense and guise�in herself and others.
New Mexico rare book expert Claire Reynier is the victim of identity fraud-and the chief suspect in the con woman's murder-in this new mystery from a writer whose work has been praised as "crisp, taut, and utterly compelling" (Entertainment Weekly).
The Shadow of Venus (Claire Reynier Mysteries)
by Judith Van Gieson
from Signet
From the acclaimed author of Land of Burning Heat -the murder of a young woman takes rare book expert Claire Reynier into Albuquerque's dark streets, where she must shed light on the shadows of the past.
The Wolf Path
by Judith Van Gieson
from Abq Press
Land of Burning Heat (Claire Reynier Mysteries)
by Judith Van Gieson
from Signet
From the acclaimed author of Confidence Woman...a secret of the Spanish Inquisition is uncovered-and its murderous wrath unleashed-in the modern American Southwest.
North of the Border: A Neil Hamel Mystery
by Judith Van Gieson
from University of New Mexico Press
On one side of the border, a murder; on the other, a killer. In between stands Neil Hamel, a woman with a passion for the truth.
“Don’t worry, Chiquita” was the Kid’s answer to almost everything, and right now Neil Hamel missed the Kid–her part-time lover and car mechanic. Neil had gone to Mexico as a favor to a man she shouldn’t be doing favors for, and what it got her was a face-to-face meeting with a corpse, a Mexican lawyer with a diamond pinky ring and a throat slit from ear to ear. Returning home to Albuquerque, Neil couldn’t let go of the tangled scheme she had uncovered. Looking for the truth, she finds human predators.
“Neil Hamel” is the best thing to happen to criminal investigation since Father Brown. . . . Van Gieson is a classy writer.”–Tony Hillerman
Raptor: A Neil Hamel Mystery
by Judith Van Gieson
from University of New Mexico Press
A steady law practice, a stash of tequila, a lover she calls the Kid—only a debt of the heart to her dear, dead aunt Joan could compel Neil Hamel to leave Albuquerque for Montana in search of a bird. No ordinary winged creature, the Arctic falcon is a near-mythic figure, a cool killer who likes the meat around the heart.
In pursuit of this elusive species, Neil witnesses a sight even more awesome—a body plunging off a cliff. Soon she is swept into a murder case that brings together militant environmentalists and high-stakes poachers, federal investigators, and even an Arabian prince. Suddenly, in a wilderness where she has no shelter and little chance for survival, Neil is the target of human predators.
Parrot Blues
Hotshots (Neil Hamel Mystery)
by Judith Van Gieson
from HarperCollins Publishers
The Stolen Blue: A Claire Reynier Mystery (Claire Reynier Mysteries)
by Judith Van Gieson
from University of New Mexico Press
Claire Reynier's job is to buy rare books for the Center for Southwest Research at the University of New Mexico library. Claire likes nothing better than to search for valuable western titles, but when a call from a collector takes her to a remote wilderness ranch, her dream job almost becomes a nightmare. In the new wild west that Claire enters when she drives into the Blue, book collecting is not a gentleman's profession. Before she knows it a thief has hijacked the box of books she has carefully selected, and Claire must find the books and the culprit if she is to keep her job and her life. From ranchers who take their property rights in deadly earnest to traveling book collectors who are Internet savvy even if they live in their pickup trucks, the authenticity of this exciting novel will grab any reader who has ever wandered into a used book store.
"An intricate puzzle that kept me guessing until the last piece snapped into place. The Stolen Blue is a terrific mystery with a savvy and thoroughly likeable sleuth."--Margaret Coel, author of The Lost Bird
"Neil Hamel is gone in this one, but Van Gieson's back--and better than ever. Don't miss The Stolen Blue."--Tony Hillerman
"Judith Van Gieson was always a terrific writer, but now she's outdone herself with The Stolen Blue, starting a grand new series featuring Claire Reynier. The Stolen Blue is a captivating and absorbing, highly readable, stay-with-it-till-you're-done mystery."--Fred Harris
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