“Griffith has created a riveting work that successfully blends a chilling mystery and a revealing character study into a potent whole.” Kirkus Review 

Ancient Bones. A modern murder. A deadly secret buried deep in the desert.

In the vast untamed desert of northern Arizona, Aideen Connor signs on as lead archaeologist hoping to find peace after witnessing her husband’s violent death. Instead, she stumbles into a mystery as ancient and dangerous as the land itself. Aideen’s team uncovers a “bone hash,” human bones showing evidence of prehistoric cannibalism. Then a brutal murder shocks the residents of the nearby Hopi Reservation. Unsettling connections emerge between the murder and her dig, and Aideen’s world begins to unravel.

Aideen’s boss blames her when the bone hash is stolen. Violent threats begin: A sheep is viciously killed under her residential trailer, a photo of her dead husband left in its blood. A hulky stranger chases her across remote backcountry and attacks her. All threats point to a grim reality: someone wants her gone. Aideen must navigate a maze of buried truths with only her dog, Dakota for companionship. Every clue leads her closer to the secrets buried at her dig that could cost her more than her career—they could cost her life.

BONE HASH
Archaeologist Aideen Connor Mysteries
BY SKYE GRIFFITH

Why I Wrote Bone Hash
A Novel set in the American Southwest

It’s late afternoon and we’re driving down a dirt road from the Kane Gulch Ranger Station heading for Grand Gulch, a vast serpentine canyon in southeast Utah. Grand Gulch is a Wilderness Study Area rife with Ancestral Puebloan cliff ruins and rock art where hikers and backpackers experience ancient Native American cultures in their natural settings. It’s late spring, and the cactuses are blooming, adding a touch of pinks and yellows to the sandstone landscape.

We arrive at the camping area close to dinner time and set up camp. It’s quiet here, as only desert wilderness can be, and we sigh a collective breath after our long drive from Colorado.

After enjoying travels throughout the U. S., Europe and South America, I realized this is one of the places on earth I like visiting best. Ever since my first trip to Mesa Verde, an extensive archaeological site in southwestern Colorado, I’ve held a fascination for the people who once walked the high desert of the Four Corners Region, the people whom we now identify as Ancestral Puebloan. Most archaeologists believe they are the ancestors of modern-day Pueblo people now living in New Mexico and Arizona.

These prehistoric Native American people once populated much of the American Southwest. They created hundreds of villages from the only building materials available—rocks and mud. At Mesa Verde I learned of their dry land farming on the mesa tops, their well-thought-out irrigation systems and how they’d managed to thrive in an environment both harsh and beautiful. Then between 1275 and 1300 CE, they abandoned everything and moved south. Scientists still contemplate the reasons for their migrations, and most point to evidence of severe drought. Some scientists also speculate about the impact of increased violence and cultural collapse brought on by environmental devastation.

After visiting Mesa Verde I hiked back-country canyons and visited archaeological sites throughout Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona to learn more about the ancient ones who’d walked the land before the arrival of Europeans. I explored their former dwellings, visited museums where I studied the every-day items they’d abandoned and sought out the petroglyphs and pictographs they’d made on canyon walls that told of their migrations.

Then I began to consider what challenges a modern-day archaeologist might face while she examined the material culture of prehistoric people who’d left their homes behind—a devastating loss—while she came to grips with her own loss after witnessing the violent death of her husband.

One-by-one the characters in Bone Hash began to reveal themselves, and my novel took off. I hope you find it an enjoyable read!

Praise for Bone Hash

“Griffith has created a riveting work that successfully blends a chilling mystery and a revealing character study into a potent whole.”
—KIRKUS REVIEWS