James C. Wilson – författare

This book is about the life of a loving and responsible father who has lost his relationships with his adult children. This circumstance provides the background for a captivating, human story which will ring true for a soberingly large number of loving parents to whom a loss of this nature has occurred. Such readers will have a strong frame of reference from which to relate to the story. For others who are simply students of the human condition, this well-crafted excursion into the life of another everyman is thoroughly worth the undertaking. The book takes us from one recollection to another, be they light- hearted and uplifting or stark and powerful, with deftness and brevity. The way in which the tragic loss of cherished children is transformed into a joyful life of purpose and love is an uplifting story which makes a worthwhile and gratifying read. A set of principles is offered as a recipe to help those for whom personal loss creates continuing pain. This provides a positive and effective means to help readers gain, even in the face of tragedy, the same kind of life success which has been experienced by the man about whom this story is written.

Park Ranger Pete Chavez is murdered in an ancient ruin at Chaco Canyon as he makes his nighttime security check. Santa Fe Police Detective Fernando Lopez is sent to investigate and soon realizes there may be a connection between the Chavez murder and the murder two days earlier of an eccentric Santa Fean by the name of Tom Flynn, whose grandfather had worked for Richard Wetherill during the first archaeological excavations of the ruins at Chaco Canyon. In Flynn''s ransacked house Detective Lopez finds a journal written by Flynn''s grandfather detailing a cache of jewelry and artifacts hidden by Wetherill somewhere in or near the ruin of Pueblo Bonito. On orders Detective Lopez teams up with Patricia Begay, an FBI agent of Navajo descent. Moving between Santa Fe and the 1,200-year-old necropolis at Chaco Canyon, they find themselves embroiled in a violent world of greed and murder. Their jobs are made more difficult by ancient superstitions and mysterious sightings in the canyon. In order to solve the case Fernando must follow a dangerous trail of enigmatic clues left by the killer or killers and steer a treacherous course between modern science and a 1,200-year-old world of ghosts. Includes Readers Guide.

After a Hollywood actress is murdered at a Taos hotel, private investigator Fernando Lopez receives a call for help from Taos County Sheriff Hank Mathews, an old friend. In Taos Lopez learns the murdered woman, Anne Lewis, had been part of a movie crew filming a tacky ''walking dead'' movie. Yesterday she''d returned to the hotel after filming at the Taos Historical Cemetery and gone for a swim in the hotel pool. Her body was found that morning with evidence indicating she had been forcibly drowned. Working with Sheriff Mathews, Lopez discovers that Lewis had a lot of enemies. Suspects include a jealous co-worker and Ted Fisher, the executive producer of the movie, who was being sued by Lewis and two other women for sexual assault. Fisher''s bodyguard threatens and later attacks Lopez in an effort to end the investigation and protect Fisher. Yet another suspect is Cowboy Jack Ryan, a young lothario who comes to the hotel bar every night looking for hookups with the various actresses. In fact, Cowboy Jack had slept with Lewis the night before the day she was murdered. Cowboy Jack complicates the investigation, because he''s part of an ongoing feud between two ranching families outside Taos, the Ryans and the Luceros. When Cowboy Jack shoots and kills the oldest Lucero son and then flees, he becomes the chief suspect in two murders. Lopez and Sheriff Mathews chase Cowboy Jack and his younger brother across northern New Mexico, finally cornering them at Ghost Ranch near Abiquiu. In the ensuing melee the murderer of Anne Lewis is finally revealed. Includes Readers Guide