Carmen, thank you for having me on your blog. You have been such a gift to me the last few years as I wrote my Shandra Higheagle Mystery series and even when I moved on to the Gabriel Hawke Novels. But most of all I cherish our friendship!

Today, I want to talk about book 7 in the Gabriel Hawke series. It is set on the Umatilla Reservation in Northeastern Oregon. It is where my main character Hawke spent most of his childhood and where his mother still lives and watches children for single parents on the reservation.

Seeing and hearing so much about the Indigenous people who go missing from reservations and urban areas, I decided, since the theme of many of my books is injustice, I would showcase the MMIP (Missing and Murdered Indigenous People) cause. The book shows how the people on the reservation band together to help, in this case, Hawke, my character, discover what happened to a missing woman. My character is called in by his mother, because she can’t get the local authorities to take her serious about the woman who is missing.

Because Hawke’s mother looks after children, it was easy to set up the scenario that one of the mothers, who had a job and adored her son, went missing. When Hawke’s mom tries to report it, she is told to wait 72 hours. The law officials, including the tribal police, believe the victim has gone off to party. Hawke’s mom knows better and calls Hawke to start looking.

He arrives and is soon joined in the hunt by Dela Alvaro, a woman who grew up on the reservation and lost a high school friend to violence. She is a disabled veteran working security at my fictional Indian Casino.  As they piece together information, they realize the woman they are looking for and another young woman were targeted at the casino.

This book not only allowed me to hopefully show people what goes on when someone on a reservation is missing, but it also was a way for me to introduce readers to my new series, The Spotted Pony Casino Mysteries, with, you guessed it, Dela Alvaro as the main character.

I was lucky enough to contact and learn a lot about the MMIP cause and the workings of an Indian Casino from a member of the Confederated Umatilla Tribes. She is the director of Enough Iz Enough organization that helps teach members how to protect themselves and to showcase the MMIP cause. She has lost multiple family members and friends to violence. Her insight into not only the depth of the loss of a family member and her knowledge of the cause was helpful for me to understand and feel the frustration. Lucky for me, she also worked at the real casino on the reservation and has a husband on the tribal police force. She has been a wonderful resource.

Not only is this book 7 in the Hawke series, but it is also my 50^th published book! It was a coincidence that my 50^th book was published the same month 15 years ago when I published my first book with a small press. Now I am an Independent author and have been for 10 years.

If you would like to join in the fun over at my 50 Book Bash Facebook party going on all month long, I’m talking about my 50 books and giving away prizes every day in May. Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/events/887343232080078

If you’d like to learn more about me or my books you can go to my website: https://www.patyjager.net

The proceeds from the sale of this book will go to the non-profit Enough Iz Enough. This is a community outreach organization that advocates for MMIW on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation.

Stolen Butterfly

Gabriel Hawke Novel #7

When the local authorities tell State Trooper Gabriel Hawke’s mother to wait 72 hours before reporting a missing Umatilla woman, she calls her son and rallies members of the community to search.

Hawke arrives at the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation and learns the single mother of a boy his mom watches would never leave her son. Angered over how the local officials respond to his investigating, Hawke teams up with a security guard at the Indian casino and an FBI agent. Following the leads, they discover the woman was targeted by a human trafficking ring at the Spotted Pony Casino.

Hawke, Dela Alvaro, and FBI Special Agent Quinn Pierce join forces to bring the woman home and close down the trafficking operation before someone else goes missing.

Per-order the ebook: https://books2read.com/u/baZEPq

Print will be available by the end of the month and the audio will be out in July.

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Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 49 novels, 8 novellas, and short stories of murder mystery, western romance, and action-adventure. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. This is what Mysteries Etc says about her Shandra Higheagle mystery series: “Mystery, romance, small town, and Native American heritage combine to make a compelling read.”