Kirjahaku

'Wonderful...Frankie suspects that a serial killer may be on the loose, a man who is so good at assuming new identities that he almost resembles the shape-changers of Native American myth. When Frankie is asked to join a geological expedition into the Mojave desert, she jumps at the chance to get away from the mayhem, but trouble follows her, with near-fatal results' - ""Mystery Scene"". 'Try getting your doctorate in geology, no less as your friends and colleagues are being attacked and murdered. Try finding out that your ex-fiance has been plagiarizing your work, and then discover that he's disappeared and might be dead. And then you still have to be able to tell creosote from andesite and basalt...An engaging read' - ""Tucson Weekly"". 'The story opens with Frankie still preparing for the defense of her doctoral dissertation. But MacFarlane has more problems than that. It appears her manipulative ex-boyfriend is not dead but threateningly alive. And then her major professor is the victim of a mailbox bomb, possibly intended for MacFarlane. And that is just the beginning of the mayhem' - ""Arizona Daily Star"". As geologist Frankie MacFarlane prepares for her doctoral dissertation defense, two members of her committee are brutally attacked, one of them fatally. Meanwhile, the case on the supposedly deceased Geoff Travers is reopened, forcing Frankie to deal with the possibility that her former fianc might still be alive. And, while working on a vertebrate fossil quarry, fellow student Dora Simpson is abducted. For her, time is running out. In the Mojave Desert, amid the arroyos and volcanic mesas of the Cady Mountains, Frankie finds the final pieces to these puzzles and becomes the quarry. Fast-paced, yet lyrical and evocative, ""Quarry"" yields a cross-section of creatures as fascinating as the fossil beds its protagonist studies. The real mystery for Frankie MacFarlane fans is how to read this book slowly enough to savor Susan Cummins Millers skillful prose and characterization' - Wynne Brown, author of ""More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Arizona Women"". Susan Cummins Miller worked as a field geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and taught geology and oceanography before becoming a writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. She lives in Tucson, Arizona. Praise for previous ""Frankie MacFarlane Mysteries"": 'A rollicking pentimento of fieldwork gone afoul!' - ""Geotimes"". 'Assured and erudite' - ""Publishers Weekly"". 'A gripping thriller, exciting and eager to lure the reader into a labyrinth of human deceit...Attention Hollywood this is the stuff from which blockbuster movies can be made! - ""Midwest Book Review"".

Southeastern Arizona is a tinderbox. Down Under Copper's plans to explore for minerals pit landowners, worried about their water supply and land values, against those hoping to profit from the mining venture. Someone snaps. In the traditional homeland of the Chiricahua Apaches, an environmental lawyer's body lies in the burned wreckage of his trailer. As if in retaliation, a DUC executive is shot. Geologist Frankie MacFarlane, her students, and Joaquin Black, an old friend and local rancher, find the executive's body in a clearing among the volcanic hoodoos of Chiricahua National Monument. And that night, near Paradise, on the eastern side of the mountain range, someone kills an ethnobotanista walker and puzzle maker who hasn't spoken in years. When Frankie, Joaquin, and Joaquin's brother Raul become suspects in the murders, Frankie must decipher interlocking puzzles to clear their names and to find the killer - or killers - before they strike again. In the process, she discovers that, contrary to geologic principles, the past is the key to the present. Miller weaves together geoscience, Western history and culture, ecology, family, and place into a compelling puzzle mystery narrated in Frankie MacFarlane's unique voice.

Geologist Frankie MacFarlane and P.I. Philo Dain, just back from Afghanistan, are packing for an R&R trip to a cooler clime when Philo’s Aunt Heather is murdered in her empty Tucson mansion. Her husband, wealthy developer Derek Dain, is the prime suspect. The day before, Heather had left town with the Dain coin collection, worth millions. Now it's missing. Though Philo and his uncle haven’t spoken in years, Philo and Frankie agree to backtrack Heather on a quest that takes them from the sun-baked Tucson Basin to the foggy San Francisco Peninsula. Among California’s fault-scarred hills they uncover painful secrets from Philo’s past—and clues to a mysterious chess set worthy of kings, long protected by one family and long coveted by another. A treasure worth killing for—but who will survive to claim it?

When colleague Dora Simpson asks Frankie MacFarlane to fill in as geology professor on a white water trip through the heart of the Grand Canyon, Frankie jumps at the chance. Eight days. Nearly two hundred miles on the river. One mile deep into the earth. What could go wrong?Everything. Frankie wrenches her knee on the first day. On the second, a solo kayaker forces her to choose between being gutted by a Bowie knife and drowning in the frigid water. Frankie chooses the river. Who wants Frankie dead? And why? As Frankie searches for answers, she discovers that one of her students is traveling incognito, fleeing a forced marriage. Has the Family tracked Molly into the Canyon? How can she escape when the few exit routes will be watched?The threads come together at Phantom Ranch, the only place in the Canyon where bridges link trails descending to the river from the North and South Rims. But will eco terrorist wannabees bring down the bridges before anyone can escape?With the riveting suspense and acute attention to geological detail that readers have come to love, Frankie faces the Colorado River rapids and the perilous mystery at hand with courage, skill, and ingenuity.

When colleague Dora Simpson asks Frankie MacFarlane to fill in as geology professor on a white water trip through the heart of the Grand Canyon, Frankie jumps at the chance. Eight days. Nearly two hundred miles on the river. One mile deep into the earth. What could go wrong?Everything. Frankie wrenches her knee on the first day. On the second, a solo kayaker forces her to choose between being gutted by a Bowie knife and drowning in the frigid water. Frankie chooses the river. Who wants Frankie dead? And why? As Frankie searches for answers, she discovers that one of her students is traveling incognito, fleeing a forced marriage. Has the Family tracked Molly into the Canyon? How can she escape when the few exit routes will be watched?The threads come together at Phantom Ranch, the only place in the Canyon where bridges link trails descending to the river from the North and South Rims. But will eco terrorist wannabees bring down the bridges before anyone can escape?With the riveting suspense and acute attention to geological detail that readers have come to love, Frankie faces the Colorado River rapids and the perilous mystery at hand with courage, skill, and ingenuity.

The poems in Making Silent Stones Sing by Susan Cummins Miller, award-winning author of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, capture a geoscientist's contemplation of, discoveries in, and wisdom gained from the changing landscape of her life and history. Individual poems explore universal themes: wonder, joy, loss, love, Deep Time, and the healing power and renewal to be found in the solitude and silence of the desert West.

August 1885. On board the steamship Oceanic, crossing from Yokohama to San Francisco.Recently orphaned Keridec Rees is carrying her father's ashes home when her friend and companion, Anne Bonney, disappears. Is Anne hiding among the passengers in steerage? Has she fallen overboard? Or was she murdered?Keri has no answers. But when she's attacked with a knife, she gets the message: Someone is determined she will never reach port.Keri searches for clues to who has placed her in the crosshairs and why. Her only weapons on this quest are the support of her guardians and an unlikely assemblage of allies, an analytical approach to solving problems, artistic proficiency, tenacity, and an aptitude for shooting targets. She will need them all if she's to solve her mystery, reach America alive, and lay the foundations of a new life.But just one misstep. and the ocean will silence her forever.