Loved this book. Reminded me of Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon series. ( )

In a third outing, PI Maggie Elliott, recovering from a debilitating illness, is living in northern California, in the remote forest cabin left to her partner Richard O'Reagan by his Aunt Bessie. She arrives two days after a young hiker was murdered and mutilated, and his girl companion raped and nearly killed as well. Maggie discovers she knows the girl, Sally, daughter of her old friend Hallie Stephens. Sally will be at risk as long as the killer is loose, and Maggie promises her mother that she'll try to find the culprit. The lonely mountain-trail site of the murder has a surprising number of frequenters, all possible suspects. By the time Maggie succeeds in getting a wrongly accused Karuk Tribe member off the hook and brings the real villain into the open, there will have been more murders and a further attempt on Sally's life. Full of Indian and gold-mining lore, a new love affair for Maggie with Native American environmentalist Jim Pepper, NORTHWEST MURDERS provides an interesting read. ( )