Moonbird Boy — Abigail Padgett

DEATH IN THE DESERT
Baking under the desert sky, firmly rooted in Indian soil, Ghost Flower Lodge is a unique psychiatric healing center. Here, child abuse investigator Bo Bradley finds renewed strength after a bout with depression, and a warm friendship with lodgemate Mort Wagman. But Bo's solace is shattered when Mort's bullet-riddled body is found in a desolate canyon.

Now she fears for the future of his orphaned son, a pale-eyed six-year-old whom the Indians call Moonbird Boy. Looking for the boy's relatives -- and his father's murderer -- Bo uncovers a strange and disturbing family involved in medical research and linked to Ghost Flower Lodge. As Bo's findings become more and more difficult to read, one thing becomes perfectly clear. Someone or something with enormous power is ready to kill anything in its way...including a nosy investigator.