Reservations / Gwen Florio.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Journalist Lola Wicks would much rather pursue a story than spend time with people she barely knows. So when an eco-terrorist bombing escalates the controversy surrounding a new coal mine on Arizona's Navajo Reservation, she's almost relieved to have a distraction from meeting her in-laws.

But as the violence gets worse and Lola digs deeper, she can't escape the feeling that her husband's family is somehow involved--a suspicion that jeopardizes not only her marriage, but also her life.

Praise:

"Compelling, realistically flawed characters and a timely story line, especially in the wake of the protests at the Dakota Access Pipeline, make this one of Florio's hardest-hitting mysteries yet."--Library Journal(starred review)

"Florio captures the culture and poverty on reservations still suffering from greed and mismanagement in a ripped-from-the-headlines story with a shocking ending."--Kirkus Reviews

"Reservations, the double entendre of its title echoing throughout, speeds to its shattering conclusion."--Montana Standard

"Packed with surprises, Reservationssends reporter Lola Wicks on a trip that sets a new standard for vacations from hell. Gwen Florio uses the stark isolation and rugged landforms of the Navajo reservation to help build tension to an explosive climax. Another winner from a first-rate writer."--Anne Hillerman, New York Timesbestselling author

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Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Formerly a war correspondent, now a journalist living in Montana, Lola Wicks often prefers reporting to people. In this fourth adventure (after Disgraced), Lola and her family-husband Charlie, who's a member of the Blackfeet tribe, and their daughter, Maggie-take a trip to the Arizona Navajo reservation to visit Charlie's brother and wife. It's the last place Lola expects to get caught up in a news scoop. But then a bomb goes off, killing one of the tribal elders, and signs point to ecoterrorists who are protesting a new coal mine on the reservation that is destroying the mesa, poisoning the local water supply, and driving people from their homes. And yet the mine is a key source of employment in the region, and as Lola digs-how can she ignore a story so divisive?-she discovers community tensions that run deeper than the mine. VERDICT Compelling, realistically flawed characters and a timely story line, especially in the wake of the protests at the Dakota Access Pipeline, make this one of Florio's hardest-hitting mysteries yet. © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

A Montana journalist's trip to visit her bridegroom's Arizona relatives becomes a horror story.Now that Lola Wicks, back from Afghanistan, has married Sheriff Charlie Laurendeau, the part-Blackfoot father of her 7-year-old daughter, Margaret, and settled in as a reporter on the Magpie paper, Charlie proposes a late honeymoon trip to visit his brother, Edgar, who long ago left their reservation to marry a Navajo woman. Although reluctant to go, Lola packs up the family, including three-legged border collie Bub, and they head for Arizona. Edgar and his wife, Naomi, are Dartmouth-educated lawyers; she works for the tribe and he for the coal company that's straining the reservation's resources. Also resident in their updated hogan, complete with all mod cons, are their 9-year-old daughter, Juliana, and Thomas Benally, a distant relative staying with them while studying pre-law. A bomb has just killed an unlucky tribal elder sitting next to a coal company sign that was the bomber's likely target. The tribe is divided about the coal company, which provides many well-paying jobs but demands so much water that it's draining the streams the people need for their sheep and crops. While visiting a cliff house, a climb the height-averse Lola makes with trepidation, they witness the bombing of a coal truck that kills the driver. Over Charlie's objections, Lola's reporter instincts kick in. Their relationship, already strained by the anti-white remarks of Edgar and Naomi, is further tested when Charlie volunteers to act as a bodyguard for Naomi, who's received a threatening letter. Lola herself is threatened, but it's not until Bub is dognapped that Lola, who'll do anything to protect her family, vows to figure out who's behind the bombings. Florio (Disgraced, 2016, etc.) captures the culture and poverty on reservations still suffering from greed and mismanagement in a ripped-from-the-headlines story with a shocking ending. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.