Native Blood

Zeb Hanks: Small Town Sheriff with Big Time Troubles Series, Book 1

By: Mark Reps

Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner

The ritual killing of a young Apache girl on a reservation in rural Arizona takes the listener through many complex layers of relationships between Apache and Anglo cultures. The myth and spiritual fabric of the Apache community pulls Zeb Hanks, a small town sheriff, through a personal journey, making the murder not just a crime to solve but a cathartic passage.

The dead never leave us but they do whisper ghost stories that bring the past back to life. Jake Dablo is a drunken, washed up lawman because of his inability to solve the murder of his only granddaughter. Seven years after her death the granddaughter of his lifelong friend, Medicine Man Jimmy Song Bird, is murdered in exactly the same ritualistic fashion. The pair join forces with the current sheriff's team to solve the murders. The closer to the truth they get the more each man grapples with his own conscience. Ultimately the intersection of two cultures and four men who are community pillars opens larger questions about the collision of the old and new west. When the dead are buried and the ghosts finally die, each character is not the same. For they have lived each day of their life knowing that a murderer and his mark opens as many doors as it closes.

©2012 Mark Reps (P)2018 Tantor

confused

disliked weak character differences and lack of a smooth segue between majorscenes and scenarios. character development was weak as well

This was a terrible book

It read like it was written for teenaged girls. It has every tired style ever used

great book enjoyed

the book was a good mystery. I enjoyed the book. hard to put down. looking forward to book 2

4

Not a Tony Hillerman, not by a long shot (pardon the pun) but it is a pleasure to walk the rural town, sit at the town diner's counter for country potatoes, search the sandy desert for the smallest of clues leading to the murderer.

Entertaining story line, unexpected twist

I enjoy the southwestern sheriff mystery and Native American themed story lines and this was that in spades. A little repetitive in places on the native traditions but fine and interesting.