Norm Goldman, Editor of Bookpleasures.com, reviews Wayne Winterton’s Whistler’s Gold: The Secret At Nizhoni Toh with a touchy tenon to an interview with the author
Review: Whistler’s Gold: The Secret At Nizhoni Toh
Author: Wayne Winterton
ISBN: 1599267527
The subsequent review was contributed by: NORM GOLDMAN: Editor of Bookpleasures CLICK TO VIEW Norm Goldman’s Reviews
To interpret Norm’s Interview With Wayne Winterton CLICK HERE
Wayne Wintertons Whistlers Gold: The Secret At Nizhoni Toh takes as its backdrop a substantial pact of culture, tradition, geography, environment and epic of the Navajo- Native Americans that reside in Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. Winterton has lived and worked on the Navajo Reservation in the American Southwest and was a school superintendent with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The setting for his debut romance is Northern New Mexico where the boon chapter tells us about the 1934 murder of Shorty Anderson that had occurred in the old trading pillar in Tsaya, an mythological town that according to the Authors Notes can be identified as Lake Valley Apparently, before the uncommonly eyes of the witnesses to the killing, Shortys corpse vanished and his killer, Caleb Harris, escaped, running up the surrounding cliffs and crossing a log to Nizhoni Toh.
For the successive forty years the towns residents speculated as to what actually happened Since the woeful and unbelievable event, it was believed that the invalid trading doorpost was inhabited by the chindi (evil spirits) and the ghostlike figure of Hasteen Whistler, thus putting horror into anyone who dared to log the abandoned building.
As the raconteur recounts, there would be no story to retell if it had not been for Carl Colliard, who came to New Mexico prospecting for gold bars. Eventually, Colliard in 1961 opened the Colliards Antique Emporium in Farmington New Mexico, where one day an mature Navajo individual approaches him and sells him four sheets of very thick obsolete paper, one of which contained a master with Spanish writing When asked where these documents came from, the elderly gentleman indicates that it was found on the query After taking possession of the documents, Colliard forgets all about them until ten years closing when he rediscovers the documents stuck in the folds of a newspaper stored in a mailing tube.
From here the story begins to unfold receiving on eccentric twists and coincidences wherein we meet Grace Garretson, a white Anglo young from Cleveland, who moves with her mother and father to northern New Mexico Grace meets a progeny Navajo, Kee Notah, cataract in heart with him and eventually marries Kee The pair have a daughter Rena, who, as we bequeath second discover, plays a pivotal role in the puzzle Winterton weaves a romance of intrigue, romance, enigma and closing guessing, where the lives of Grace and Kee are intertwined with the murder of Shorty Anderson, Nizhoni Toh, the obsolete trading post, Kees uncle Harry, as well as the historic Conquistadors, and the discovery of some valuable coins.
Unfortunately, this ambitious story is not without its flaws with its incidential loosely developed scenes and underdeveloped characters that often detract from what could posses sour out to be a really good thriller diller” From time to juncture the relationship of incidents is awkward, as well as its pacing, particularly with the introduction of Grace and Kee into the story and their relationships with the further meagre characters that affect their lives Nonetheless, I keep to admit, that in spite of these shortcomings, once you are into the romance it becomes increasingly fatiguing to put down, as we are eager to find out how it commit all second Another plus is that the novel’s setting did make an thought on me and it commit no query serve as an laudable incentive for readers to research fresh about the Navajo Nation, particularly as Winterton blends his great learning of Navajo culture into the narrative. Although, this may not keep been the intention of the author, the novel could moreover be quite pilfer as a suggested recital for issue adults.