Shadow of the Solstice

The novel is set primarily on the Navajo Nation in northwestern New Mexico and in Phoenix, Arizona. It follows two intertwined storylines: a dangerous encounter with an environmental cult and a fraudulent rehabilitation scheme that preys on Indigenous people.

A young man discovers a battered corpse inside a fenced uranium waste disposal site near Shiprock, New Mexico. Terrified, he flees, resolving to stop drinking. This young man, later identified as Droid, a seventeen-year-old who has been struggling with alcohol and marijuana since his mother's death, boards a white van in Shiprock bound for Best Way Rehabilitation Center, a free rehabilitation program in Phoenix. His grandmother, Mrs. Melia Raymond, a strong-willed Navajo elder who senses something suspicious about the offer, insists on accompanying him. Before leaving, Droid calls the Navajo Police about the body.

Meanwhile, Navajo Police Officer Bernadette "Bernie" Manuelito is called in on her day off for a mandatory meeting. Bernie and her husband, Lieutenant Jim Chee, share caregiving duties for Bernie's aging mother, Mama, whose cognitive decline requires constant supervision. Bernie's younger sister, Darleen Manuelito, a home health aide and college student, also helps. At the Shiprock substation, the chief of the Navajo Nation Police announces that Secretary of Energy Savanah Cooper may visit Shiprock to make an announcement about uranium, a substance with a devastating legacy on Navajo land. He warns that a protest group called Citizens United to Save the Planet (CUSP) may try to disrupt the visit. Bernie privately asks Captain Texas Adakai for reduced hours because of Mama's care, but he dismisses her request. Shortly after, Adakai collapses from a heart attack, and Chee is placed in charge of the substation.

When the tip about the body reaches the station, Chee and Officer Harold Bigman investigate. The dead man is white, wearing expensive boots and a brown cowboy hat with a silver band, his face battered. In his pocket is a CUSP flyer for a "Solstice Meditation in Indian Country." FBI agents take over the case but reveal little about their presence in the area.

In Phoenix, Mrs. Raymond and Droid check into Broadway Manor, a decrepit former hotel serving as Best Way's staging area. The operation is a fraud: Its owner, Beatrice "Bea" Dottson, and her ex-husband bill the government for rehabilitation services they never provide, using Native American clients' identities to claim Medicaid reimbursements. Staff confiscate residents' phones, and that first night, Droid leaves the building and does not return. Mrs. Raymond is frantic, but Bea dismisses her concerns. She befriends Warren, a Diné employee who feels guilty for connecting Droid with a local drug contact. At a government benefits office, Mrs. Raymond slips a paper with phone numbers to a young Navajo worker named Georgiana "Gigi" Blackhorse, asking her to call for help.

Back on the Navajo Nation, Darleen grows worried when Mrs. Raymond misses their scheduled visit. Gigi's call confirms that Mrs. Raymond is in Phoenix, enrolled in a program she does not need, and desperate about her missing grandson. Darleen and Greg, Mrs. Raymond's son-in-law and Droid's father, drive through the night to Phoenix. They sneak into Broadway Manor through a loading dock, bluff their way to Mrs. Raymond's room, and escort the elderly woman out. The search for Droid leads them to a youth shelter, where he agrees to see his grandmother first, then eventually his father. Mrs. Raymond urges Greg and Droid to heal together from the loss of the woman they both loved.

On the solstice, Bernie investigates a disturbance at the Yazzie revival camp, a remote ranch where a group has built an unauthorized sweat lodge. She discovers the group is CUSP. Their spokesman, Arthur Caseman, is condescending and evasive. Members bear signs of violence: a large man named Rollie has visible injuries, and his partner Alisa has bruises shaped like fingerprints. A green-eyed woman named Uliana Belkina whispers a warning to Bernie. When Bernie enters the Yazzie house to retrieve a guest list, a man with a goatee named Victor attacks her from behind, knocks her unconscious, drives her vehicle into an arroyo, and disables it.

The chief informs Chee that the dead man has been identified as James P. Sethley, an FBI informant and Secretary Cooper's brother. Realizing Bernie is in danger at the compound, Chee races there. On the road, he encounters Mrs. Jasmine Yazzie, a respected ndiliihii (hand trembler and diagnostician), who shares a vision of evil at the compound: death, heat, and flames. At the revival grounds, Caseman lures Chee into the group's motor home, where Rollie and Victor overpower him, bind him with duct tape, and inject him with a sedative. Leader, the cult's patriarch, boasts about a plan to kidnap the secretary using men disguised as federal agents while the women pray themselves to death in the sweat lodge.

Bernie regains consciousness, contacts the station, and learns the secretary has canceled her trip. She finds Sam, Mr. Yazzie's four-year-old grandson, hiding in a cave where his grandfather told him to go after Victor beat the elderly man. Rookie Officer Roper Black arrives as backup. Together they enter the compound and find Chee in the motor home, drugged but alive. Bernie cuts him free.

Chee enters the meditation tent, where Leader's recorded voice drones instructions for sacrifice. Roper shuts off the generator and arrests Victor. Chee begins chanting a Navajo healing song, and the cult members start to calm. Bernie races to the sweat lodge, its door latched from outside with women bound inside, moaning in lethal heat. She kills the fire and begins pulling women out. Alisa attacks Bernie, trying to force her back inside as a sacrifice, but Bernie subdues her after a brutal fight. With help from Uliana, she frees the remaining women. Uliana reveals that Leader ordered the women to die while Caseman filmed their deaths, and that Sethley was killed in a forced fight after he defended his sister and threatened to leave CUSP.

The FBI arrives. A convoy fleeing the compound is stopped in a gunfight that kills two CUSP members, but Leader and Caseman are not among those captured. Bernie and Chee spot the Yazzies' stolen truck and find Caseman, who surrenders. Leader flees into a wash, but Bernie chases him on foot and handcuffs him when he collapses from the heat; a flash drive in his jacket contains critical evidence. Back at the Yazzie house, Bernie uses a code word she established with Sam to coax the boy into opening a secret room where he and his injured grandfather are trapped. Mrs. Yazzie's laptop, hidden inside, holds records the FBI needs. Three flash drives are ultimately recovered: one documenting Sethley's murder, one detailing the kidnapping scheme, and one hidden in the dead man's hatband containing CUSP's complete financial records.

In Phoenix, Sergeant Chandler of the Phoenix Police contacts Darleen as part of an investigation into the rehab fraud. Darleen provides detailed information, including a sketch of Bea that Chandler recognizes. Chandler offers Darleen a job as a forensic sketch artist. Darleen's boyfriend Slim, a teacher she feared she had alienated by leaving without word, surprises her at the Phoenix library and drives her home.

The Navajo Nation organizes Operation Rainbow Bridge to rescue displaced tribal members from the Phoenix fraud schemes. Back home, Chee tells Bernie he is open to becoming captain, recognizing his leadership skills can serve his people. Bernie, moved by her time caring for little Sam, tells Chee she wants to step back from active duty to look after Mama and to start a family. Chee tells her the idea is perfect, and they embrace.