Kayenta Crossing Summary:
In the second book in the Charles Bloom Murder Mystery series. On the Navajo Reservation, in a little aluminum trailer situated on a remote washboard road north of Kayenta, Arizona, Dr. Carson Riddly begins his family practice stint. He’s been exiled to the most remote medical clinic in the Indian Health Service. His duty station lies in the heart of Navajoland, with 300-foot crimson cliffs for a backdrop and no neighbors in sight. When a murder occurs on Doc Riddly’s watch, the talk turns to skinwalkers, gamblers, weavers, and drugs. Everyone is a suspect, including the doctor. Riddly reaches out to the only other bilagaana he knows on the rez, art dealer Charles Bloom. Unbeknownst to Bloom, whose Santa Fe gallery represents several Navajo artists, a string of savage murders is closer than he can imagine. By helping the doctor, Bloom exposes himself and his girlfriend, weaver Rachael Yellowhorse, to a cold-blooded killer’s wrath. If Riddly and Bloom can’t put the pieces together quickly enough, the man in the orange hat with blinding white teeth will add two more to his growing list of victims.
Reviews:
“Anyone with an ounce of curiosity about Santa Fe’s art scene and the rarified world of the vintage Navajo weaving will find much to like in Kayenta Crossing. With a deft hand, Mark Sublette tells an intriguing story of murder, vengeance, complex cultural connections and a young doctor who trades golf and fast cars for life on the reservation.” – Anne Hillerman, author of Tony Hillerman’s Landscape and the new Chee/Leaphorn novel Spider Woman’s Daughter
“Art dealers, collectors, and the American Southwest all adding up to an enjoyable fast-paced crescendo of exotic landscapes and peoples.” – Bruce Bernstein, Ph.D. former director Santa Fe Indian Market,
“A Southwest art mystery filled with hot sweat-lodge rocks, curing ceremonies, master Navajo weavers, greedy collectors, and a newly graduated doctor sent to work at a remote clinic in Navajoland.” – Wolf Schneider, contributing editor, abqARTS,
“The Charles Bloom Mystery series delivers once again… a murder on the Navajo Nation, classic blankets, and a famous Daisy Taugelchee tapestry, requiring skills only a seasoned art dealer can provide to help solve. Mark Sublette’s Kayenta Crossing is a page-turner that doesn’t disappoint.” – Mark Winter, author of The Master Weavers and owner of the Historic Toadlena Trading Post
A conversation with Mark Sublette, author of Kayenta Crossing: A Charles Bloom Murder Mystery:
Q: Since you were in the Medical profession, like Carson Riddly, how are you two alike?
A: There’s no doubt a bit of myself is incorporated into the Carson character. I could relate to many of the situations he felt as a fresh young doctor out of residency thrown into the lion’s den of a rural clinic, where you were the only doctor for miles around.
Q: Have you ever met dealers/collectors like Darryl Ridgemont before?
A: My books are fiction, but twenty years of dealing in the art world you do see some pretty amazing things that dealers and collectors pull, hopefully, none as horrific as the characters I write about.
Q: Did you take all of the photos in this book?
A: I did, I believe the additional visual references enhance the storyline. For me being surrounded by the geography and the local residents were immensely helpful in writing my books.
Q: When is the next Charles Bloom book coming out?
A: The next book is “Hidden Canyon” it will come out in the summer of 2014, this will be the third installment of the Charles Bloom Murder Mystery series.