Death Waits in the Dark

Arthur Nakai’s first love, Margaret, calls him while he’s attending the funeral of a man from Arthur’s time in the Marines in Iraq. Margaret’s two boys had been killed, and she wants Arthur to look into it. What he finds sends his thoughts to the sharpshooters the Marines trained. Since the shooting took place on the reservation, Navaho police, led by Jake Bilagody, take on the investigation. What Arthur and Jake uncover have them looking at a wide range of suspects — a strong-arm security guy, the people from a high-powered oil company who want Margaret’s land, and even a member of Arthur’s unit from Iraq. A bullet tears through Arthur’s truck nearly killing him, leaving Arthur injured and shaken and his wife scared. Can Jake and Arthur figure this out before anyone else dies?

Mark Edward Langley has written a compelling second book in his Arthur Nakai detective series. The writing is good, although the amount of description and detail sometimes gets in the way of and slows the story down in several places. The characters are well-rounded and intriguing, and there are plenty of red herrings to keep the mystery under wraps until the very end.