Mesa Verde Victim. Scott Graham
Praise for the National Park Mystery Series
“Graham’s winning fourth National Park mystery uses Yosemite as a backdrop for a host of shady dealings and dangerous power struggles. This zippy tale uses lush descriptions of natural beauty and twisted false leads to create an exciting, rewarding puzzle.”
—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
“As always, the highlight of Graham’s National Park Mystery Series
is his extensive knowledge of the parks system, its lands,
and its people.”
—KIRKUS REVIEWS
“Intriguing . . . Graham has a true talent for describing the Rockies’ flora and fauna, allowing his readers to feel almost as if they were trekking the park themselves.”
—MYSTERY SCENE MAGAZINE
“Graham has crafted a multilevel mystery that plumbs the emotions of greed and jealousy.”
—DURANGO HERALD
“Graham has created a beautifully balanced book, incorporating intense action scenes, depth of characterization, realistic landscapes, and historical perspective.”
—REVIEWING THE EVIDENCE
“Masterfully plotted in confident prose, Arches Enemy is not only an adventurous and fascinating mystery you can’t put down, it delivers important insight on ancestral cultures and their sacred lands.
Scott Graham proves yet again that he is one of the finest.”
—CHRISTINE CARBO, author of
A Sharp Solitude: A Glacier Mystery
“A winning blend of archaeology and intrigue, Graham’s series turns our national parks into places of equal parts
beauty, mystery, and danger.”
—EMILY LITTLEJOHN, author of
Shatter the Night: A Detective Gemma Monroe Mystery
“One part mystery, one part mysticism, one part mayhem—
and all parts thrilling.”
—CRAIG JOHNSON, New York Times bestselling author of
Land of Wolves: A Longmire Mystery
“Filled with murder and mayhem, jealousy and good detective work—an exciting, nonstop read.”
—ANNE HILLERMAN, New York Times bestselling author of
The Tale Teller: A Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito Novel
“Only the best novelists have the gift of propelling readers into the middle of artfully crafted adventures, and with Yosemite Fall, Scott Graham once again proves he belongs in the very first rank.”
—JEFF GUINN, New York Times bestselling author
of The Road to Jonestown
“Engrossing . . . a glorious portrait of one of the most compelling landscapes on earth. Graham clearly knows the territory.
A topnotch read.”
—WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER,
New York Times bestselling author of This Tender Land
“What an extraordinary ride! You know when a reader says they couldn’t put the book down? Yellowstone Standoff is one of those rare books . . . a tour de force.”
—WIN BLEVINS, New York Times bestselling author of Going Home
“Yellowstone Standoff takes man versus nature—and man tangled up with nature—right to the brink of wild suspense.”
—MARK STEVENS, Colorado Book Award-winning
author of Lake of Fire: An Allison Coil Mystery
“One of the most engaging mysteries I’ve read in a long while . . . delivers it all and then some.”
—MARGARET COEL, New York Times bestselling
author of Winter’s Child: A Wind River Mystery
“Get ready for leave-you-breathless high country southwestern adventure.”
—MICHAEL McGARRITY, New York Times bestselling
author of Residue: A Kevin Kerney Mystery
MESA VERDE VICTIM
Also by Scott Graham
in the National Park Mystery Series
Canyon Sacrifice
Mountain Rampage
Yellowstone Standoff
Yosemite Fall
Arches Enemy
A National Park Mystery
by Scott Graham
TORREY HOUSE PRESS
Salt Lake City • Torrey
MESA VERDE VICTIM
This is a work of fiction set in a real place. All characters in this novel are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
First Torrey House Press Edition, June 2020
Copyright © 2020 by Scott Graham
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or retransmitted in any form or by any means without the written consent of the publisher.
Published by Torrey House Press
Salt Lake City, Utah
www.torreyhouse.org
International Standard Book Number: 978-1-948814-23-2
E-book ISBN: 978-1-948814-24-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019952009
Cover design by Kathleen Metcalf
Cover art “Intersecting Planes” by David Jonason,
www.davidjonason.com
Interior design by Rachel Davis
Distributed to the trade by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution
Torrey House Press offices in Salt Lake City sit on the homelands of Ute, Goshute, Shoshone, and Paiute nations. Offices in Torrey are in homelands of Paiute, Ute, and Navajo nations.
About the Cover
Acclaimed Southwest landscape artist David Jonason painted the Mesa Verde scene that appears on the cover of Mesa Verde Victim.
Combining a keenly observant eye and inspiration drawn from a number of twentieth-century art movements, including Cubism, Futurism, Precisionism, and Art Deco, David Jonason achieves a uniquely personal vision through his vivid, dreamlike oil paintings of the American Southwest. Jonason connects on canvas the traditional arts and crafts of the Southwest’s native tribes with the intricate patterns in nature known as fractals. “For me as a painter,” he says, “it’s a reductive and simplifying process of finding the natural geometries in nature, just as Navajo weavers and Pueblo potters portray the natural world through geometric series of zigzags, curves, and other patterns.”
“Intersecting Planes” is used by permission of The Jonason Studio, www.davidjonason.com.
To the many archaeologists working to preserve Ancestral Puebloan history across the Southwest, with gratitude
Prologue
Mesa Verde, Colorado
September 1891
Joey