Book Description

Albuquerque pottery dealer/treasure hunter/sleuth Hubie Schuze is back digging up trouble—in this second collection from the “smartly funny” series (Anne Hillerman, author of Spider Woman’s Daughter). A dealer in ancient Native American pottery, Hubert Schuze has spent years searching the public lands of New Mexico for artwork that would otherwise remain buried. According to the US government, he’s a thief, but Hubie knows the real crime would be to allow age-old traditions to die. He honors prehistoric craftspeople by resurrecting their handiwork, and nothing—not even foul play—will stop him in these three installments of the Lefty Award–winning mystery series. The Pot Thief Who Studied Escoffier: When a restaurateur asks him to create one hundred dinner plates for his new Austrian eatery in Santa Fe, Hubie can’t say no to the challenge—or the $25,000 he’ll be paid. But no sooner does he start the project than the fractious kitchen staff starts turning up dead. Hubie will have to dish out some serious detective work if he’s going to collect his fee, save the restaurant, and escape Santa Fe alive. “Funny at a very high intellectual level and deliciously delightful.” —The Baltimore Sun The Pot Thief Who Studied D. H. Lawrence: Eighty years ago, D. H. Lawrence moved to Taos, where a neighbor welcomed him with a stew served in a handcrafted pot made by a legendary craftswoman. Now, the neighbor’s great-grandson wants Hubie to retrieve it. The pot thief agrees, but his search of the Lawrence ranch is interrupted by a blizzard that traps him and several other guests indoors. It soon becomes apparent that one of them is a killer—and Hubie finds himself facing a mystery so shocking it would make Lady Chatterley blush. The Pot Thief Who Studied Billy the Kid: After lowering himself into a cave in search of Anasazi Indian pottery, Hubie uncovers a long-dead corpse, buried where the ancient tribe would never have left a body. As he puzzles over this discovery, he hears a chilling sound: his truck, left behind on the cliff face, being driven away. After a narrow escape, Hubie returns with his best friend, Susannah, to try to identify the dead man. What they find instead is a mystery that takes them back not to the days before Columbus, but to the Wild West of Billy the Kid . . .