The Blue Corn Murders: A Eugenia Potter Mystery (Eugenia Potter Mysteries)

"When she did reach the cafe, she bought her hot sandwich and took it back outside to her car, so that she could sit there and stare at the landmark and think about the Tony Hillerman mystery she had just read. It was set all around the great rock. As she pondered it, recalling scenes from the book, she was glad to leave it to authors like him to find and solve the murderous mysteries of the great Southwest. She'd had her own brushes with homicidal individuals in the past. That was enough--more than enough for a woman who desired only to be a doting grandmother, a good friend, a competent rancher, a bit of a needlepoint whiz, and a plain country cook." The "great rock" is Shiprock; the Tony Hillerman book in question is probably The Fallen Man; and the woman hoping for a crime-free life is Genia Potter, the memorable character first created by Virginia Rich and then continued after Rich's death by Nancy Pickard. As she did in The 27-Ingredient Chili Con Carne Murders, Pickard uses characters and plot suggestions left by Rich to create a solid, comfortable mystery of the sort usually classified as a "cozy." But even if you're not a cozy lover, you'll probably be enticed by the setting (an archeological camp near the wondrous Mesa Verde National Park, home of the elaborate, mysteriously abandoned Indian villages), by the characters (some tough and interesting women of varying ages, each with her own reasons for visiting the area), the good food served by a feisty cook named Bingo (the cornbread and cream cheese sticks sound particularly succulent), and even the plot--which involves two murders and the apparent disappearance of 16 teenagers from Texas. --Dick Adler