Tularosa

An ex-chief of detectives in the Santa Fe Police Department, Kevin Kerney was shoved into early retirement by a wounded leg. When his ex-partner and the man responsible for this injuries asks him to locate his son, Kerney must track clues that lead deep into the histories of the region and, compellingly, into his own family's rancing past.
Tularosa--"the place of reddish willows" in Spanish--holds the key to Kevin Kerney's past and his future. Ex-chief of detectives in the Santa Fe Police Department, shoved into early retirement by a shot-up leg, Kerney is fresher in body and mind than he realizes when Navajo Indian Terry Yazzi, his ex-partner and the man responsible for his injuries, asks him to locate his son, reported AWOL from the high-security White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico.

To find Sammy Yazzi, Kerney must track clues that lead deep into the histories of the region-Native American, Hispanic, and Anglo-and, compellingly, into his own family's ranching past. And he must deal with the complicated feelings triggered by the officer in charge of the army's own investigation, Captain Sara Brannon, a fiery young officer as formidable as she is attractive. As Sammy's trail spirals into a web of murder, treason, and the smuggling of priceless artifacts, Kerney and Brannon travel an accelerating arc across the New Mexico scene--from the boutique-ridden plaza of Santa Fe, through the sharp-edged beauty of the high desert, to bordertown gambling dens--to a final confrontation in which, both wounded and at risk, they must fight for their lives and for each other against opponents who hold all the cards.

Tularosa begins a series featuring Kevin Kerney. In each book Kerney investigates a mystery in today's New Mexico with roots in the rich history of this fascinating region.