Many years ago I was introduced to the Southwest by Tony
Hillerman's 'THIEF OF TIME. Still in New Mexico, on the
same theme but on the opposite side to law enforcement, we
meet Hubert Schuze, a dealer in dug-up pots, however come
by. He considers himself harmless, doing good in fact,
finding ancient artefacts that recall the people who made
them and providing said pots with appreciative homes. He
stars in THE POT THIEF WHO STUDIED GEORGIA O'KEEFE which is
seventh in the Pot Thief series by J. Michael
Orenduff.
I hadn't read the earlier
books but had to admit a liking for Hubie very fast.
Hubie has a brainwave. The vast Trinity site was bought up
to provide empty land in which to detonate the earliest
atomic bombs. What if there are sites containing pots in
the desert wasteland? No archaeologists are going to be
exploring Trinity, so he might as well look. If he can
sneak in and out unchallenged. Of course, that's the tricky
bit.
Georgia O'Keefe is an artist and her canvases of the
Southwest are highly valued. Hubie's buddy Susannah has
found one - unsigned, though. More on Hubie's mind is his
lovely girlfriend, Sharice. This lady is a French Canadian,
who has held off from committing to Hubie, but
she seems to be generally accepted in Albuquerque. She
turns out to be a really strong, genuine character, a lady
anyone would love. Susannah, though, is Hubie's partner in
- well if not crime what is it? Then the potential buyer
for the pot turns up dead.
I learnt about the Tompiro people, now extinct but creators
of wonderful pottery, and the methods used, probably by
women potters. I learnt about Georgia O'Keefe. As with the
Maltese Falcon, Hubie and Susannah get involved in
fakery,
double dealing and stolen artefacts. I even learnt about
the White Sands Missile Range. There is so much going on,
from so many directions, that the reader needs to
concentrate, but Hubie himself is easygoing and always
willing to crack a joke.
J. Michael Orenduff has been a professor, and President of
New Mexico State University. This background shines through
the involved and involving tale in THE POT THIEF WHO
STUDIED
GEORGIA O'KEEFE, which I can recommend to any fan of
amateur sleuth stories set in spectacular locations.
Provided, that is, that they like intelligent problem
solving. I'll definitely be back for more.
America’s favorite pot thief must face off against the US
Army to rescue a precious relic from obscurity in this
clever
and captivating mystery
A dealer in traditional Native American pottery, Hubie
Schuze
scours New Mexico in search of ancient treasures. The
Bureau
of Land Management calls him a criminal, but Hubie knows
that
the real injustice would be to leave the legacies of
prehistoric craftspeople buried in the dirt.
In all his travels across the state, there is one place
that
Hubie hasn’t been able to access: Trinity Site at the White
Sands Missile Range, where the first atomic bomb was
detonated. Deep within the range are ruins once occupied by
the Tompiro people, whose distinctive pottery is incredibly
rare and valuable. When an old associate claims to have a
buyer interested in spending big money on a Tompiro pot,
Hubie resolves to finally find a way into the heavily
guarded
military installation.
But Hubie has more on his mind than just outwitting the
army’s most sophisticated security measures. He’s in love
with a beautiful woman who has a few secrets of her own—and
his best friend, Susannah, may have just unearthed a lost
Georgia O’Keeffe painting. It’s a lot for a mild-mannered
pot
thief to handle, and when his associate is murdered and
Tompiro pots start replicating like Russian nesting dolls,
Hubie suddenly realizes he’s caught up in the most complex
and dangerous mystery he’s ever faced.
The Pot Thief Who Studied Georgia O’Keeffe is the 7th book
in
the Pot Thief Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the
series
in any order.
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