English Lessons

On a bleak Christmas morning, Sewa Tribal Police Officer Heather English patrols a desolate canyon on the Arizona reservation.?Her father, the Benteen County, Kansas Sheriff, is lonely enough with no family around to go work at his office.?On the way, Sheriff English calms a wild incident in a church parking lot.?Then receives a death threat.?The creche, at the center of the town's largest holiday yard display, has been desecrated.?Its owner plans to kill the neighbors he suspects are responsible.?To keep their husband and father home, his family gives the sheriff the man's guns and promises not to let him make trouble.?Soon the county fills with rumors that the sheriff is systematically violating Second Amendment rights and seizing every weapon.?A local militia turns out, locked and loaded, and ready to do what it takes to stop him.?Meanwhile, in Arizona, Heather stumbles on the newly-elected governor, newly murdered.?A note explains his death is part of a drug war.?His killer promises Heather she'll be among the victims.?Her Uncle Mad Dog, a Cheyenne wanna-be shaman, is involved.?Someone thinks Mad Dog is a drug lord and sends him a last minute gift—a severed human hand.?Careful police work, a little Cheyenne magic, and maybe a Christmas miracle are needed to restore peace on earth.?One slip, however, and Mad Dog, Sheriff English, and Heather will rest in peace—eternally!?

J.M. Hayes studied anthropology at Wichita State University and the University of Arizona. Still a Kansas boy at heart, he lives in Tucson with his wife and a small herd of German Shepherds. English Lessons is his seventh novel and sixth Mad Dog & Englishman Mystery.