The Godmother's Web

The Godmother's Web, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, Ace Books, 1998

Cindy Ellis is the type of person always willing to help a friend, so she thinks nothing of traveling to Arizona to train a horse at riding trails in the desert. It also helps her get away from the pressure of being lover and employee of Ray Kinkaid, also known as Raydir Quantrill, famous rock musician.

Alone in the desert, Cindy runs into an old Indian woman who she thinks is an elderly mental patient who wandered away from her caretaker. She soon learns differently. The woman, known to everyone as Grandma, takes Cindy on a journey through life as a present-day Native American. Cindy sees firsthand the less-than-happy relations between the Navajo and Hopi peoples, mostly over land ownership. She sees differing conceptions of right and wrong. Cindy sees lots of pain and heartache, and lots of love, too.

Having been a nurse on the Hopi reservation, Scarborough certainly knows her way around the world of Native Americans. This is a very realistic novel, with several Indian myths and stories included. Well worth the reader's time.