Pisces Rising, by Martha C. Lawrence

Retrieved from: the library
(0312202989), 2000
Suggested by: The List
My Ratings: 8 Merit, 10 Interest, 8 Fun

I thought this was the last book in the series, but it's not. After the Big Twist at the end of the last book, I really read this because I had to figure out how Lawrence was going to carry on after killing a main character.

Well, carry on she does, but it's still kind of a bummer of a book, in spite of her attempts to introduce a potential new love interest or two.

Against her better judgement, Elizabeth hires on to assist a defense attorney prove his client's innocence in a nasty murder at a casino. The victim was scalped, which is bad enough, but since the casino is on a reservation, and the alleged killer is white and the victim is Native American, there are (ahem) subtexts.

In the course of the investigation, Elizabeth gets some help from a shaman--the cousin of her best friend--and a former FBI agent, as well as her usual undependable psychic skills. In the end, the killer is discovered but can't be brought to trial. She also turns youth mediator and manages to stop the downward course of a young man's misguided attempt to save his father from his uncle.

I guess I need to read the next book in the series. Hopefully, it will answer lots of the hanging questions left at the end of this one: Hawk medicine? Shapeshifting? She hired Joanne? I want to see the rest of the story....