Book 1st edition, October 1996. with complete number line beginning with 1.

Book 1st edition, October 1996. with complete number line beginning with 1. Fine in fine dust jacket, not price clipped, in protective mylar cover. Texas author Martin's first novel and first in the Texana Jones Native American Mystery Series. WINNER OF THE WESTERN WRITERS OF AMERICA Medicine Pipe Bearer Award. "he borderland between Texas and Mexico along the Rio Grande comes alive in this absorbing debut featuring Texana Jones, the owner of a trading post, and her veterinarian husband, Clay. Jones doesn't believe that her best friend, Maria Ortega-Deed, and her husband were killed by drug smugglers. So, when reclusive Rhea Fair, a curandera or healing woman, is found murdered in a similar manner, Jones is determined to get to the bottom of it. Fair, once owner of a large ranch, became a healer and herbalist after her sons were arrested for drug smuggling and fled across the border to Mexico while out on bail. Just before Ortega-Deed died, Fair had gone to her for some kind of legal advice. Fair, afraid of a client with the evil eye, had also seen a clairvoyant and had sent off a long letter only days before she was murdered. Jones tracks down the identity of Fair's last client, a journalist, now also missing, who was writing a book about the curandera. Getting help in her investigation from both sides of the border, Jones must also deal with her husband's campaign to stem a rabies epidemic, and with multimillionaire rancher Robert Darke's plans for a lavish fiesta and the archeological project he is financing on his property. Martin populates Jones's tiny hometown of El Polvo with hardworking, goodhearted eccentrics and farmers, all richly portrayed in a series sure to be a winner."--PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.