Judith Van Gieson
Claire Reynier is thrilled when her old friend Burke Lovell donates his collection of valuable books to the university where she works as a librarian. But the morning after she arrives at his ranch in the remote region known as "the Blue" to collect the bequest, Burke is found dead. His daughter Mariah—recently discovered—admits to helping the ailing man commit suicide. Mariah has also been named his principal heir, much to the shock
...On one side of the border, a murder; on the other, a killer. In between stands Neil Hamel, a woman and lawyer with a passion for the truth. "Don't worry, Chiquita," was the Kid's answer to almost everything, and right now Neil Hamel missed the Kid—her part-time lover and car mechanic. Neil had gone to Mexico as a favor to a man she shouldn't be doing favors for, and what it got her was a face-to-face meeting with a corpse, a Mexican lawyer
...3) Parrot Blues
She may be a divorce lawyer, but Neil Hamel uses her PI's instincts when a millionaire's rare indigo macaw and newly endangered wife are kidnapped together. The unusual search puts her right in the heart of New Mexico's breathtaking Plains of San Agustin, for a dangerous game of bird smuggling and one-upmanship. Armed with high-tech surveillance equipment and a backpack full of her client's money, Neil treks to a remote exchange point. Alas, she
...When Claire Reynier becomes the victim of credit card fraud, she's stunned to discover that Evelyn Martin, an old college friend and sorority sister, is the culprit. She's even more shocked when Evelyn turns up dead. According to the police, Evelyn also swindled three other former classmates, but Claire is the only one without an alibi for the time of Evelyn's murder. And the only one with an extra motive: Evelyn stole her rare signed first edition
...When a young woman is found dead in the basement of the university library—with an illustration from a valuable book beside her—Claire recognizes the victim as someone she had met, but whose name she never knew. To learn more, Claire must descend into the haunting world of the homeless in Albuquerque, where the dead woman was known simply as Maia. It is a name with special meaning, the same as that of a mythical Greek woman who fled
...How could you forget whether or not you murdered somebody? That's exactly what Albuquerque lawyer-cum-sleuth Neil Hamel asks herself when she takes on the defense of an elderly client who can't remember whether she ran over the girl her car surely did kill.
Early in the morning of November 1st, Neil and her boyfriend, the Kid, are shaken out of their post-coital bliss when they find a surprise visitor at Neil's apartment door. The visitor
...Archivist Claire Reynier may have a priceless find on her hands. A woman named Isabel Santos has discovered a faded document hidden for hundreds of years under the floor of her family's adobe house. It could be the controversial last words of a Jewish mystic condemned to death by the Inquisition in Mexico City. But before Claire can establish the document's authenticity, it disappears, and tragedy visits the Santos family. As Claire searches for
...Jonathan Vail's novel made him famous. His disappearance made him a legend. Thirty-five years ago the young writer embarked on a camping trip in Utah's Slickrock Canyon, never to be seen again. His journal vanished with him. Now, archivist Claire Reynier—preserver of Vail's legacy—finds herself drawn into literature's most elusive mystery. But separating fact from fiction proves to be a dangerous proposition. The search for the missing
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