Billed as the first winner of the Tony Hillerman Prize for best debut mystery set in the Southwest, Barber's first novel is full of exquisite New Mexico scenery, but it's not enough to buoy a routine plot. Santa Fe newspaper editor Lucy Newroe usually ignores the calls from an old woman known as Scanner Lady with police scanner tidbits, but soon after Scanner Lady tells Lucy she overheard two cops discussing a dead body, Melissa Baca is found dead in a gorge outside the city. Det. Sgt. Gil Montoya strives to reconcile conflicting statements about Melissa's family and alleged drug use. Responding to an emergency call, Lucy, who also volunteers as a medic, finds the body of an elderly woman near a police scanner and fears her source has been murdered. Reluctantly joining forces, Lucy and Gil discover that the links between the two murders run deeper than they imagined. Like Lucy, Barber is a journalist and volunteer EMT; hopefully, she'll use this background to flesh out her heroine in a sequel. (Oct.)
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Lucy Newroe, editor of the Capital Tribune, a Santa Fe newspaper, is given a tip from Scanner Lady, an anonymous reader who listens to her police scanner. That same night, the body of a young woman, Melissa Baca, is found at the bottom of a local bridge. When Scanner Lady is murdered, Lucy connects her tip with Baca’s murder and tries to convince the police to investigate the link. Santa Fe police detective Gil Montoya is called upon to work with the state police to help investigate the crime, and he and Lucy end up exchanging information. Lucy is also working reluctantly as a volunteer medic and dealing with her recent romantic breakup, while Gil worries about his mother and her health. A strong sense of the city of Santa Fe and its environs and the appeal of the two well-developed main characters show why this mystery was the first winner of the Tony Hillerman Prize for the best debut mystery set in the Southwest. --Sue O'Brien