The Bone Fire

(Hardback)

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Description

Every year, the people of Santa Fe gather together for the burning of a four-story-tall puppet called Zozobra, a local custom that started 300 years ago. The next morning, as the sounds of the Fiesta de Santa Fe celebration still echo through the streets, Detective Sergeant Gilbert Montoya discovers a skull in the ashes of Zozobra. With the help of newspaper editor Lucy Newroe, he must find the identity of the victim and the person responsible, in a case that will take them into every level of Santa Fe society.

Reviews

"The insights that Barber, an Albuquerque resident, offers heighten the pleasure of reading her mysteries and give a fresh take on why Santa Fe is called the City Different." --THE ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL

"Full marks to Barber for providing the mesmerizing Southwest landscape and mindset." --KIRKUS REVIEWS

"Readers will enjoy the Santa Fe atmosphere and the local lore along with an intriguing plot." --BOOKLIST

"Santa Fe is a vivid character in this book, impacting the characters, the mystery and the crime. This complicated and excellently written story moves quickly, is realistic and has an interesting set-up where the two main characters are almost never physically together." --ROMANTIC TIMES

"Barber ... has a knack for slicing the the core of her richly flawed characters. . . . The beautiful part of The Bone Fire is its refusal to turn away from truth. The crimes at the center of the mystery begin with the kind of all-too-common violation that, left to fester in silence, leaks its poison through multiple generations." --PASATIEMPO DIGITAL

"Provides detours into the rich Hispanic traditions, the geography, the architecture and vagaries of life in present-day Santa Fe...I think the pleasurable novel will endure as a far more insightful tour guide than any document printed for that purpose." --ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL on THE REPLACEMENT CHILD

"The author has a sharp eye for details about Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico that longtime area residents often take for granted." --THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN on THE REPLACEMENT CHILD

"[Barber] has put as many twists in the plot as there are in the mountain roads near Santa Fe, and you'll be fooled again and again." --RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH

"Looking for an undiscovered gem Christine Barber won the very first Tony Hillerman Prize last year for the best unpublished novel set in the Southwest. Along came a publisher, and now we have Barber's very good debut." --THE GLOBE AND MAIL (TORONTO) on THE REPLACEMENT CHILD

"Rich in local color." --FORT WORTH STAR TELEGRAM on THE REPLACEMENT CHILD

Author Bio

Christine Barber is an award-winning journalist as well as a certified emergency-medical technician and firefighter. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she is currently pursuing a career in medicine. She previously worked as an editor at the Santa Fe New Mexican and as a journalist for the Albuquerque Journal and Gallup Independent.