Wife of Moon by Margaret Coel ($22.95 signed hc or $7.99 pb) tells the story of the connection between the death of Bashful Woman in 1907 and Denise Painted Moon in the present. When Denise is murdered, her husband T.J. is the prime suspect. He asks Vicki Holden to help him prove his innocence. The problem is that he lies about his whereabouts at the time of the murder. He also forgets to tell Vicki that Denise wanted a divorce. Vicki wonders how innocent he really is. At the same time Christine Nelson has disappeared. She is the current curator of the museum of St. Francis Mission on the reservation. There is an exhibit of Curtis photographs there. Father John O'Malley is working on finding Christine. So is her husband, a CIA agent, who will do anything to find her. It seems that Denise had some original Curtis photographs that show who really killed Bashful Woman. There are people who don't want them found because it might destroy some powerful lives. As more people are killed to keep the secret, Vicki and Father O'Malley have to work together to find out the truth before more lives are lost.
The connection between a kidnapping that takes place in Kansas in 1972 and a suicide that takes place in Evergreen, Minnesota in 2003 is what Jane Lawless has to find out in An Intimate Ghost by Ellen Hart ($13.95). Jane becomes involved when the people at a wedding reception she caters are victims of hallucinogenic mushrooms. The parents of the groom are Alden and Mary Clifford, friends of Jane. Their son has been hurt pretty badly and their daughter_in_law can't seem to talk. Although they don't blame her, some of the other guests do and she is being sued. She has to find out who was responsible for the crime. Cordelia, who usually helps her, has problems of her own. Cordelia's sister leaves town and leaves her daughter behind. Cordelia is busy trying to deal with her niece so Jane does most of the detecting on her own. It seems that wherever she turns, she finds more questions than answers and all the questions have to do with drugs. When she does find out the truth, it is more complex that she could have imagined and destroys several people lives.