The White Water Woman ceremony, celebrated for hundreds of years in New Mexico, is sacred among the Mescalero Apaches. This year, 2014, a young woman and a baby will die in early June during this ceremony. It is up to Sam Rifle, an ageless Di-Yin, holy man in the Native American Church, to right this wrong. A jet airplane is stolen from Holloman Air Force base and deliberately crashed in Otero County, near Tularosa, New Mexico, killing the pilot. Sheriff David Ortiz y Pino investigates. Charlie Three-Fingers is found dead near the crash site, but the sack of peyote he was bringing to the Native American Church is missing. Are these four deaths connected and if so, why?

Woah, that’s a whole load of characters.  Who’s the main character? Tell us about them.

David Ortiz y Pino loves the isolation on his family’s ranch that goes back a hundred and fifty years. Divorced, he is dealing with a disease that is slowly robbing him of his passion for life. A veteran of Afghanistan, all he wants is to be left alone. His relationships with Louie Cravey, Sam Rifle, Heeber McNinch, and Elizio Baeza help him balance his world. The only woman in his life left him because of the circumstances of death of their child.

What genre is this novel?

Crime.

What kind of readers is it aimed at?

Those who like suspense fiction and murder mysteries.

If you enjoy Preston & Childs novels you will love reading my book.

Have you written any other novels that we should read next?

Slow Walk in A Sad Rain, and On Rims of Empty Moons

Tell us about yourself.

I was born in Clovis, New Mexico in 1947. I grew up with my brother on large ranches in West Texas: Ft. Davis, Alpine, and Van Horn. I led a Huck Finn life and was probably the only kid who had an antelope named Governor for a pet. It slept with me every night until it got too large and aggressive and sent to Yellowstone National Park for breeding stock. My father was a ranch foreman and spent much of his life working ranches for absentee owners. My mother was a professional politician in Santa Fe, New Mexico where I spent many summers fishing the Pecos River and attending the Santa Fe Opera.

I was educated through high school and junior college at New Mexico Military Institute, and I was commissioned as second lieutenant in the Infantry. I served with the 8th Special Forces Group in South America (Ft. Gulick, CZ) and 5th Special Forces Group in Vietnam. I have a BA in English from University of Texas-El Paso and an MA in Education Administration from Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, North Carolina. I am married to the whimsical artist, Elizabeth McAfee, and have a son, John Lewis McAfee, who works for Homeland Security: Immigration. After a long career in teaching, coaching, and administration, I am now a full-time writer.

Have you got a website?

www.johnpmcafee.com

What about social media?

www.facebook.com/johnpmcafee

What’s next?

My next novel involves a trial in Beaufort, South Carolina during World War 2, where a “Root Doctor”(Voodoo priest) was tried and sentenced to jail for treason against the United States. The title for my fourth novel is Steppin’ Over The Bones.