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

ISBN: 1599267527

The following review was contributed by: NORM GOLDMAN:Editor of Bookpleasures. CLICK TO VIEW Norm Goldman's Reviews

To read Norm's Interview With Wayne Winterton CLICK HERE

Wayne Winterton’s Whistler’s Gold: The Secret At Nizhoni Toh takes as its backdrop a great deal 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 novel is Northern New Mexico where the first chapter tells us about the 1934 murder of Shorty Anderson that had occurred in the old trading post in Tsaya, an imaginary town that according to the Author’s Notes can be identified as Lake Valley. Apparently, before the very eyes of the witnesses to the killing, Shorty’s corpse vanished and his killer, Caleb Harris, escaped, running up the surrounding cliffs and crossing a ledge to Nizhoni Toh.

For the next forty years the town’s residents speculated as to what actually happened. Since the tragic and unbelievable event, it was believed that the old trading post was inhabited by the chin’di (evil spirits) and the ghostlike figure of Hasteen Whistler, thus putting fear into anyone who dared to enter the abandoned building.

As the narrator recounts, there would be no story 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 Colliard’s Antique Emporium in Farmington New Mexico, where one day an elderly Navajo man approaches him and sells him four sheets of very thick old paper, one of which contained a sketch with Spanish writing. When asked where these documents came from, the elderly gentleman indicates that it was found on the reservation. After taking possession of the documents, Colliard forgets all about them until ten years later when he rediscovers the documents stuck in the folds of a newspaper stored in a mailing tube.

From here the story begins to unfold taking on unusual twists and coincidences wherein we meet Grace Garretson, a white Anglo teenager from Cleveland, who moves with her mother and father to northern New Mexico. Grace meets a young Navajo, Kee Notah, falls in love with him and eventually marries Kee. The couple have a daughter Rena, who, as we will later discover, plays a pivotal role in the mystery. Winterton weaves a tale of intrigue, romance, mystery and second guessing, where the lives of Grace and Kee are intertwined with the murder of Shorty Anderson, Nizhoni Toh, the old trading post, Kee’s uncle Harry, as well as the historic Conquistadors, and the discovery of some valuable coins.

Unfortunately, this ambitious novel is not without its flaws with its occasional loosely developed scenes and underdeveloped characters that often detract from what could have turned out to be a really good “thriller diller". From time to time the relationship of incidents is awkward, as well as its pacing, particularly with the introduction of Grace and Kee into the story and their relationships with the other minor characters that affect their lives. Nonetheless, I have to admit, that in spite of these shortcomings, once you are into the narrative it becomes increasingly difficult to put down, as we are eager to find out how it will all end. Another plus is that the novel's setting did make an impression on me and it will no doubt serve as an excellent incentive for readers to research more about the Navajo Nation, particularly as Winterton blends his vast knowledge of Navajo culture into the narrative. Although, this may not have been the intention of the author, the novel could also be quite appropriate as a suggested reading for young adults.