Bad Medicine (Hardcover)

Formerly an FBI agent, Ella Clah has returned to the reservation and is now a special investigator with the Navajo police force. When the daughter of Senator Yellowhair is killed in a suspicious car accident, the senator accuses Ella and the tribe's medical examiner, Dr. Carolyn Roanhorse, of tampering with evidence and falsifying the autopsy results. The fact that the young woman's body is mutilated and that Dr. Roanhorse's samples disappear doesn't help the mood on the reservation, already tense due to conflict between whites and Indians at the Navajo-owned mine. An outbreak of meningitis further disrupts Navajo life as the reservation's inhabitants must decide whether or not to he vaccinated. Those who follow the old ways reject modern medicine, preferring to trust in the tribe's hataalis, but many attend vaccination clinics - only to flee when Navajos begin dying from an unknown disease. Ella is convinced that somehow all these things tie together, but finding the connections is difficult and dangerous. Threats come from all sides, and clues lead Ella to suspect that Navajo witches may somehow be involved, putting not only her life but her soul in danger.