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Ella Clah #5
Shooting Chant
With tensions rising between traditional and modern Navajo, a break-in at the health clinic reveals a possible link between the health of pregnant women and the rise in birth defects among native livestock. Reprint.
352 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
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190 people want to read
About the author
Aimée Thurlo
98 books151 followersAimee and David Thurlo are the authors of the Ella Clah mysteries, the Sister Agatha mysteries, the Lee Nez vampire novels all set in New Mexico. David grew up on the Navajo Indian Nation, and Aimee, a native of Cuba, lived in the southwest for forty years.
Aimée passed away peacefully at her home on the morning of February 28, 2014, after a brief struggle with cancer and related complications. She was attended by her husband of 43 years, David. Aimée was 62 years old.
Aimée passed away peacefully at her home on the morning of February 28, 2014, after a brief struggle with cancer and related complications. She was attended by her husband of 43 years, David. Aimée was 62 years old.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
December 19, 2012
The Ella Clah novels are interesting detective novels which give an insight into Navajo culture. Ella Clah and her perspectives deepen with each novel.She becomes a more developed character, as does her mother Rose. A really enjoyable read. I'm making my way through the lot!
November 16, 2013
This is the fifth book in this long-running series featuring Ella Clah and it gets better with every book. The recurring cast of characters give the stories depth and the New Mexico setting adds realism to the Navajo story lines. I would recommend this book and the series and will continue to read about Ella et. al.
January 22, 2017
Another good entry in the Ella Clah series. In this one she has family problems while dealing with kidnappers, murderers and terrorists. Well done with interesting plot twists. Recommended.
February 1, 2019
Thurlo continues to insert Navajo culture into her mystery books and while it is always interesting the plot of this novel just had too many threads. There is a break-in at the clinic, some kidnappings, some animal mutilations, and a murder. Too much, too much.... Also, the characters who were so unique in the first four books of the series were flat in this one. I enjoyed the other books a lot more, so will try another, but if it reads like this one I am probably finished with the series.
January 31, 2015
This mystery set in the Navajo reservation near Shiprock, NM was interesting, but not compelling for me. Some of the dialog seemed contrived, especially early in the book. I almost gave up the read early on because I couldn't get comfortable with the characters, especially Ella, but I continued and the mystery drew me in as I progressed. I haven't read any of the earlier books in the series and there were enough references to past events to recommend reading from the beginning, but the story stood on its own acceptably.
I had to suspend reality as far as the science involved, with respect to the use and effects of gamma radiation. That sort of inaccuracy can ruin a story for me, but usually only when it involves microbiology (my field of study), so in this book I could soldier on through the scientific errors.
Any story set on the Rez and with Navajo characters has to reference the spiritistic beliefs that permiate the culture, and there are frequent references to taboos and beliefs. This story makes abundant use of the conflicts involving traditional versus modern Indian culture. Although the main character, Ella, speaks as though she has been educated away from the superstitions with which she is surrounded, she still carries many with her, such as an amulet that gets hot when she is in danger and special powers of intuition that are mentioned so often it became tiresome to me. The "legacy", a curse mythology that haunts her family, is a frequent part of the plot that evidently will carry on in subsequent books of the series.
Overall, the story wasn't so tedious as to cause me to quit, but not enjoyable enough to read others in this series.
I had to suspend reality as far as the science involved, with respect to the use and effects of gamma radiation. That sort of inaccuracy can ruin a story for me, but usually only when it involves microbiology (my field of study), so in this book I could soldier on through the scientific errors.
Any story set on the Rez and with Navajo characters has to reference the spiritistic beliefs that permiate the culture, and there are frequent references to taboos and beliefs. This story makes abundant use of the conflicts involving traditional versus modern Indian culture. Although the main character, Ella, speaks as though she has been educated away from the superstitions with which she is surrounded, she still carries many with her, such as an amulet that gets hot when she is in danger and special powers of intuition that are mentioned so often it became tiresome to me. The "legacy", a curse mythology that haunts her family, is a frequent part of the plot that evidently will carry on in subsequent books of the series.
Overall, the story wasn't so tedious as to cause me to quit, but not enjoyable enough to read others in this series.
October 2, 2016
The series has gotten easier to read and for the most part I enjoy the books but Ella is becoming slightly unbelievable super cop--and in this book she is even pregnant. I have had six children and trust me when I say that few women in their first trimester would be able to keep their lunch down with all this activity--let alone, swimming, running and very little rest. And the mystery of the legacy of the family is a bit much to process. But it is fiction--so this time a PG Ella stopped a terrorist attack almost single handedly.
November 11, 2014
I picked this up at a library sale, I have read some of this author before but had forgotten the series. I will see which other books in this series I haven't read yet and read them. I love books about Native American mysteries - Tony Hillerman was my favorite, and I enjoyed the book his daughter wrote recently.
July 29, 2011
I love Ella Clah, altho' it wouldn't be bad for her to get a love interest that lasted at some point--she is a great Native American and the mysteries are very good
March 6, 2015
The old ways meet modern terrorism in an interesting way. Well worth reading as Ella continues to battle on in her own way.
August 6, 2019
I have really liked this series up until this book. The others I have devoured over two-three days. This one took me a month. The writing is good, but the disbelief quotient is really, really high. Three things in particular. 1) Ella is now pregnant--what? from where? whom? I thought I had missed a book (really, I went back to the series list to find #4a, between 4 and 5, because she wasn't pregnant in book 4). Finally, in a solitary paragraph buried in the middle of chapter 2 of book 5 we find out that she had been dating the father. Really... I understand that some authors prefer to shy away from romance, but this was extreme. They had been dating for months and we were left in the dark. I feel like an in-the-dark sibling that had not been invited to the party.
2) And then there was how she behaved while pregnant. Has any of the authors been pregnant? Had a pregnant relative? You are tired. REALLY tired. And you have to pee all the time (if you're not puking) and you're grumpy. You are NOT facing 4 death threats per week, working insane hours, and having the only care you physically give the baby be a longer Velcro vest. It was unbelievable and left a bad taste in my mouth.
3) [spoiler alert]And then there was the radiation leak. That whole bit of nonsense-science also left a bad taste in my mouth. You are not going to find mutant insects and defective bunnies from a single, recent radiation leak. You may have fewer births and fewer insects, but radiation leaks don't work the way they were portrayed in this book. Being a scientist, I just had to put the book away for awhile before I could finish it.
Hopefully the next one will be better.
2) And then there was how she behaved while pregnant. Has any of the authors been pregnant? Had a pregnant relative? You are tired. REALLY tired. And you have to pee all the time (if you're not puking) and you're grumpy. You are NOT facing 4 death threats per week, working insane hours, and having the only care you physically give the baby be a longer Velcro vest. It was unbelievable and left a bad taste in my mouth.
3) [spoiler alert]And then there was the radiation leak. That whole bit of nonsense-science also left a bad taste in my mouth. You are not going to find mutant insects and defective bunnies from a single, recent radiation leak. You may have fewer births and fewer insects, but radiation leaks don't work the way they were portrayed in this book. Being a scientist, I just had to put the book away for awhile before I could finish it.
Hopefully the next one will be better.
June 14, 2017
Another Ella Clah mystery. Again 3 crimes going on at the same time that she is trying to solve. One is a break in at a medical clinic where only pregnancy tests were stolen from client folders--why?
Another crime is two kidnappings of important Navajo leaders--why? The third is the murder made to look like suicide of a software technologist at a Angelo Lab that produces sterilized equipment and employs both Navajo and Anglo workers.
Also several different murder attempts on Ella's life occur--why? Is it related to the crimes or because she has a legendary Navajo family power along with her brother Clifford, who is a native healer. The book also deals with her newly occured pregnancy. She intends to keep the baby but not marry the father. How will she deal with her career focus and being a mother?
These Thurlo books are fast reads and hold your attention to find out what happens next.
Another crime is two kidnappings of important Navajo leaders--why? The third is the murder made to look like suicide of a software technologist at a Angelo Lab that produces sterilized equipment and employs both Navajo and Anglo workers.
Also several different murder attempts on Ella's life occur--why? Is it related to the crimes or because she has a legendary Navajo family power along with her brother Clifford, who is a native healer. The book also deals with her newly occured pregnancy. She intends to keep the baby but not marry the father. How will she deal with her career focus and being a mother?
These Thurlo books are fast reads and hold your attention to find out what happens next.
April 13, 2018
#5 in a series of Ella Clah novels, Ella--a former FBI Agent returned to the Rez as a Special Investigator for the Navajo tribe. In this book, Ella Clah is newly pregnant, won't marry the baby's father and worries about the life her child will have on the Rez that is divided between the traditionalists the more modern people who are welcoming the outside world. LabKote, a business located on Rez land is having a series of murders, mischief and mayhem between the two factions employed at the plant--Navajo and Anglo employees. There are clinic break-ins with certain records taken and the mysterious findings of birth defects to investigate--altogether a very active read with smooth transitions between all the activity that happens on these pages.
April 30, 2018
The copy of this I had contained the Tony Hillerman endorsement and at least suggested a kinship between Hillerman and this mystery.
Not so much. This one is standard issue, turn of the millennium page turner fiction, with evil corporations, corrupt pols, a little mystical mumbo jumbo, and a kick-a woman cop who seems to be solving all the cases up in Shiprock NM all by her lonesome. It’s too long by half, but the high concept plot is a little scarily prescient. The one big demerit is that it seems to take forever to get going.
I don’t really recommend seeking this out, but if it’s the only book around, it’s better than playing candy crush on the phone. I liked the second half of the book a good bit more than the first.
Not so much. This one is standard issue, turn of the millennium page turner fiction, with evil corporations, corrupt pols, a little mystical mumbo jumbo, and a kick-a woman cop who seems to be solving all the cases up in Shiprock NM all by her lonesome. It’s too long by half, but the high concept plot is a little scarily prescient. The one big demerit is that it seems to take forever to get going.
I don’t really recommend seeking this out, but if it’s the only book around, it’s better than playing candy crush on the phone. I liked the second half of the book a good bit more than the first.
July 17, 2019
This book was first published in 2000, after a major anthrax scare, and it feels a bit stale now in places, although there are signs that perhaps it’s been updated for ebook release.There’s a blooper in one place where a supposedly Saudi terrorist speaks Farsi, which is something one would expect from an Iraqi.
That aside, there are some interesting aspects to the book that make it worth reading. Ella continues to have to struggle for acceptance, and those struggles have been renewed an intensified. By the end of the book, they are complicated and worsened.
If you are interested in her as a character, read this book and don’t worry too much about the plot, which is honestly a bit much.
That aside, there are some interesting aspects to the book that make it worth reading. Ella continues to have to struggle for acceptance, and those struggles have been renewed an intensified. By the end of the book, they are complicated and worsened.
If you are interested in her as a character, read this book and don’t worry too much about the plot, which is honestly a bit much.
February 6, 2019
The issue that I have with this series is most of the story is told through dialogue and the dialogue always seems so forced. The stories and characters are interesting enough. Ella has more stressful life-threatening moments in a few days than most police forces will have in a career.
July 12, 2019
Full of action and threats. In this book Ella finds out she is pregnant and is dealing with that as well as several cases on the Rez. She is one busy woman!
February 5, 2024
Well thought out plot. Engaging characters. Enough but not overwhelming amount of native american/navajo history, culture
February 22, 2022
I have read all the Ella Clan books they are absolutely wonderful i just wish there were some new books I laughed and feel like I was right there with them . My kind of books.
October 10, 2022
3 1/4 stars
February 3, 2017
The Ella Clah series, by David and the late Aimee Thurlo, is another fast paced, entertaining and informative read. The primary character, Ella Clah, is a contemporary Navajo woman working in the law enforcement field. Where she lives depends on which book in the series you're reading, it could be on the Rez, east, or west coast.
This series is a fast read, absorbing and well researched with good character development. Often there are unexpected twists and turns. More recent books will sometimes reference characters and events in previous titles, giving Clah a well defined personality. Clah's character, matures over the years as the series progresses in a personal way as well as professionally.
While some of the action depicts her as an extraordinarily gifted FBI and police woman, this is a work of fiction and entertainment, so some allowances can be made!
This series is a fast read, absorbing and well researched with good character development. Often there are unexpected twists and turns. More recent books will sometimes reference characters and events in previous titles, giving Clah a well defined personality. Clah's character, matures over the years as the series progresses in a personal way as well as professionally.
While some of the action depicts her as an extraordinarily gifted FBI and police woman, this is a work of fiction and entertainment, so some allowances can be made!
June 22, 2014
A software designer / quality manager is found dead in his employer's parking lot of suicide - or is it? Something is not quite right and stirs Ella Clah's instincts. Then two Tribal Leaders are kidnapped in separate incidents. When Ella remembers seeing photographs of them in the company offices while investigating the suicide and notes the proprietary attitude of the company's security officer, the savvy mystery readers easily jump down the solution path. The clues in this story are almost too obvious, the progress jerky, and the distraction of Ella's personal situation just that - a distraction. In an attempt to better understand where the Shooting Chant title came from, this book did lead me to discover the fascinating Sandpaintings of the Navajo Shooting Chant, which turned out to be a treasure.
May 31, 2008
Any of David and Aimie Thurlos's books on the Ella Clah series are fun adventure, based on the Navajo Nation around Shiprock, New Mexico. This is crime fiction featuring Native American heroes. The Thurlos put a lot of Indian lore into their books and focus on characters who struggle to live in two cultures but are never fully embraced by either. Ella Clah is a thoroughly modern career woman, but her loyalty to her heritage runs strong and deep, making for a richly explicated interior life that is more fully realized by the Thurlos than many of their peers in the genre.
December 3, 2009
I really like the main character, Ella Clah, and her family in this series. I also like the occasional mystical aspect of the books. It's just a bit too much in that every time Ella goes to investigate a scene, it ends up that someone gets hurt somehow, or there's a shootout--it definitely calls for suspension of belief! I will keep reading them, but read lots of different things in between :).
December 26, 2008
I am reading the whole Ella Clah series of mysteries. I like that they are set in Colorado and Wyoming, in Arapahoo Nation land and show a "partnership" between an Irish priest in an Indian mission and an Arapahoo attorney who wants to help her people. Start with the earliest copyrighted book in the series and read forward as they build on each other.
June 20, 2011
Pregnant Navajo police woman investigates mysterious deaths of pregnant animals and humans while trying to keep peace between traditionalists and modern Navajo. At the same time she must contend with a legend concerning her family. This story remined me of Tony Hillerman and his Indian police.
March 26, 2012
The fifth book in this Ella Clah series is just as gripping as all the others, and in this one we meet her daughter Dawn and will enjoy her journey along with her mother's, grandmother's, uncle's and all their relatives and acquaintances. What a delightful adventure.
November 20, 2014
Easy , gripping ,fast, paced book !
I really enjoyed this book and would like others that like a good
murder mystery as much as I do to read and learn about some of the culture. I give it a five star rating!
I really enjoyed this book and would like others that like a good
murder mystery as much as I do to read and learn about some of the culture. I give it a five star rating!
January 7, 2021
Just not my favorite native-american series. It was ok.
July 17, 2009
This one was better than the previous one. It got quite exciting in the end. I just wish they had a better editor for this series- I keep finding typos.
March 31, 2011
better than earlier in series
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews