The Stolen Gods

In this inexorably compelling mystery novel, Jake Page introduces readers to Mo Bowdre, a protagonist as vividly memorable as the Southwestern landscape against which the Story unfolds. A powerfully built wildlife sculptor, his blond hair announcing his Anglo heritage, Bowdre is blind - which doesn't stop him from pursuing the truth when trouble erupts in the art world of Santa Fe. As The Stolen Gods opens, Bowdre is pondering how best to extract an eagle from a block of cold marble when the murder of a major dealer in Native American art sets off a flurry of rumor and speculation. In the wreckage of the dead man's elegant gallery, several curious drawings and a record of regular phone calls to someone in Singapore support the FBI's belief that this crime is related to another just as devastating: the theft of some Hopi deities, potent - and dangerous - sacred objects on which the integrity of tribal life greatly depends. The killer is not to be found, and Bowdre and Connie Barnes, his Anglo-Hopi girlfriend, at first merely curious about the case, soon have personal reasons to be concerned about its outcome. Meanwhile, a loner named Willie Blaine heads west on Route 40, with the stolen gods - the passport to the fulfillment of his dreams - concealed in the back of his pickup truck. Seeking an enigmatic buyer who leads him on a chase through Arizona resorts and desertlands, Willie doesn't realize that, in the cruel game of cat-and-mouse that is beginning, he himself is one of the mice. Impeccably crafted, The Stolen Gods embraces the multicultural world of Santa Fe, the scrubby life of the road, and the hidden ways of the Hopi - as Mo and Connie work with the Santa Fe police and the FBIto divert the forces of greed, passion, and love from their converging arcs of violence.