Norm Goldman, Editor of Bookpleasures.com, reviews Wayne Winterton’s Whistler’s Gold: The Secret At Nizhoni Toh with a petulant link to an interview with the author

Review: Whistler’s Gold: The Secret At Nizhoni Toh

Author: Wayne Winterton

ISBN: 1599267527

The successive review was contributed by: NORM GOLDMAN: Editor of Bookpleasures CLICK TO VIEW Norm Goldman’s Reviews

To scrutinize Norm’s Interview With Wayne Winterton CLICK HERE

Wayne Wintertons Whistlers Gold: The Secret At Nizhoni Toh takes as its backdrop a mammoth protocol of culture, tradition, geography, environment and history 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 narrative is Northern New Mexico where the elite chapter tells us about the 1934 murder of Shorty Anderson that had occurred in the former trading post in Tsaya, an mythical town that according to the Authors Notes can be identified as Lake Valley Apparently, before the extremely eyes of the witnesses to the killing, Shortys corpse vanished and his killer, Caleb Harris, escaped, running up the surrounding cliffs and crossing a projection to Nizhoni Toh.

For the successive forty years the towns residents speculated as to what actually happened Since the deplorable and unbelievable event, it was believed that the invalid trading doorpost was inhabited by the chindi (evil spirits) and the ghostlike number of Hasteen Whistler, thus putting alarm into anyone who dared to enter the abandoned building

As the narrator recounts, there would be no message 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 ancient Navajo friend approaches him and sells him four sheets of thumping thick lapsed paper, one of which contained a master with Spanish writing When asked where these documents came from, the senile gentleman indicates that it was found on the question After receipt possession of the documents, Colliard forgets all about them until ten years second when he rediscovers the documents stuck in the folds of a newspaper stored in a mailing tube.

From here the message begins to unfold obtaining on unusual twists and coincidences wherein we meet Grace Garretson, a white Anglo baby from Cleveland, who moves with her mother and father to northern New Mexico Grace meets a young Navajo, Kee Notah, waterfall in emotions with him and eventually marries Kee The yoke posses a daughter Rena, who, as we consign end discover, plays a pivotal role in the secret Winterton weaves a romance of intrigue, romance, secret and later guessing, where the lives of Grace and Kee are intertwined with the murder of Shorty Anderson, Nizhoni Toh, the terminated trading post, Kees uncle Harry, as well as the historic Conquistadors, and the discovery of some valuable coins

Unfortunately, this ambitious narrative is not without its flaws with its rare loosely developed scenes and underdeveloped characters that often detract from what could have gamy out to be a really interest thriller diller” From circumstance to point the relationship of incidents is awkward, as well as its pacing, particularly with the introduction of Grace and Kee into the data and their relationships with the fresh minor characters that affect their lives Nonetheless, I own to admit, that in spite of these shortcomings, once you are into the book it becomes increasingly hard to put down, as we are eager to find out how it cede all later Another plus is that the novel’s setting did make an notion on me and it entrust no mistrust serve as an admireable incentive for readers to research more about the Navajo Nation, particularly as Winterton blends his immense enlightenment of Navajo culture into the book Although, this may not posses been the intention of the author, the tale could furthermore be completely thieve as a suggested rendering for children adults.