Whistler's Gold: The Secret at Nizhoni Toh

By Wayne Winterton

Book Overview

In 1934, the owner of a trading post murdered a Navajo man. Four customers witnessed the act and chased the killer to the cliffs behind the trading post where he seemingly disappeared before their... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1599267519
• ISBN13: 9781599267517
• Release Date: December 2005
• Publisher: Xlibris
• Length: 228 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.5" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

A Watercolor Portrait of Life on a Navajo Reservation

Wayne Winterton's book, Whister's Gold, is a modern western. It reminds me of the magnificent Zane Grey books I read as a child. Whistler's Gold is a delicate watercolor portrait of life on a Navajo reservation circa World War II and then moves forward to the 1980s in New Mexico, when the main part of the storyline unfolds. I was particularly intrigued with the youngest character - teenaged Rena. Winterton perfectly captures this young girl. Rena, donning her shorts and running shoes for a jog while taking a break from her sheep herding duties, will hold a special place in my memory. I highly recommend this book for readers young and old who want a mystery mixed with light touches of romance and western history.

Love and mystery, my favorites, Sept. 8, 2006

Such a fun book to read. It was hard to put it down. And it was made up of my two favorite things, love and mystery. It is just crying for a sequal, Mr. Winterton, please. Grace and Kee are in my head and I cannot get them out. Diane Limberg, SLC Ut.

Whistler's Gold

I think Whistler's Gold is a fabulous book. Excellent story line & plot stucture. It was hard to put down to give my old eyes a rest. I think the author should consider a sequel & revisit "Whistler's Gold" again soon. I must add that I am not swayed by the fact that I am a high school classmate of Wayne Winterton, I proudly say & I look forward to other books by Wayne--Milt Lowe Casa Grande, Az.

Fascinating journey into intrigue

Wayne Winterton has managed, in one book, to catch the reader and then deliver a fascinating account of intrigue, Spanish gold, legend, murder, a blending of both Navajo and Anglo cultures, and love. Along the way, he's introduced us to a remarkable blended family, which I know we'll be hearing a lot more from in the future. This book could only have been written by someone who has been there, and Winterton obviously has. I look forward eagerly to the next one! Slim Randles, Albuquerque.

Once You Are Into The Narrative, It Is Difficult To Put Down!

Wayne Winterton's Whistler's Gold: The Secret At Nizhoni Toh takes as its backdrop a great deal of culture, tradition, geography, environment and history of the Navajo- Native Americans that reside in Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. Winterton has lived and worked on the Navajo Reservation in the American Southwest and was a school superintendent with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The setting for his debut novel is Northern New Mexico where the first chapter tells us about the 1934 murder of Shorty Anderson that had occurred in the old trading post in Tsaya, an imaginary town that according to the Author's Notes can be identified as Lake Valley. Apparently, before the very eyes of the witnesses to the killing, Shorty's corpse vanished and his killer, Caleb Harris, escaped, running up the surrounding cliffs and crossing a ledge to Nizhoni Toh. For the next forty years the town's residents speculated as to what actually happened. Since the tragic and unbelievable event, it was believed that the old trading post was inhabited by the chin'di (evil spirits) and the ghostlike figure of Hasteen Whistler, thus putting fear into anyone who dared to enter the abandoned building. As the narrator recounts, there would be no story to retell if it had not been for Carl Colliard, who came to New Mexico prospecting for gold bars. Eventually, Colliard in 1961 opened the Colliard's Antique Emporium in Farmington New Mexico, where one day an elderly Navajo man approaches him and sells him four sheets of very thick old paper, one of which contained a sketch with Spanish writing. When asked where these documents came from, the elderly gentleman indicates that it was found on the reservation. After taking possession of the documents, Colliard forgets all about them until ten years later when he rediscovers the documents stuck in the folds of a newspaper stored in a mailing tube. From here the story begins to unfold taking on unusual twists and coincidences wherein we meet Grace Garretson, a white Anglo teenager from Cleveland, who moves with her mother and father to northern New Mexico. Grace meets a young Navajo, Kee Notah, falls in love with him and eventually marries Kee. The couple have a daughter Rena, who, as we will later discover, plays a pivotal role in the mystery. Winterton weaves a tale of intrigue, romance, mystery and second guessing, where the lives of Grace and Kee are intertwined with the murder of Shorty Anderson, Nizhoni Toh, the old trading post, Kee's uncle Harry, as well as the historic Conquistadors, and the discovery of some valuable coins. Unfortunately, this ambitious novel is not without its flaws with its occasional loosely developed scenes and underdeveloped characters that often detract from what could have turned out to be a really good "thriller diller". From time to time the relationship of incidents is awkward, as well as its pacing, particularly with the introduction of Grace and Kee into the story and their relationships wi