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Wild Indigo is the first in Sandi Ault's "Wild" mystery series set in Taos Valley in New Mexico.  The "wild" in the series refers both to the last name of the sleuthing heroine, Jamaica Wild, and the juxtaposition in the pueblo regions of New Mexico between ancient lands and traditions and the work of people like Jamaica, agent with the federal Bureau of Land Management.  Jamaica is trying to keep it wild while also keeping it manageable: old ways trump the new, except when murder is involved.  Then Jamaica steps in, crossing boundaries of work, religion, and culture to solve the case, save a child, and further muddle up her brain about how to preserve the past while also respecting it.

Jamaica is a tough young woman with a wolf for a pet, a Native American medicine teacher for a stand-in mother figure (Jamaica's own mother abandoned her as a child), a hunky forest ranger for a boyfriend, and solid inner resources of self-sufficiency, athletic agility, and determination. 

In Wild Indigo Jamaica witnesses death by bison trampling of a Tanoah Pueblo man.  Accused of causing the stampede herself, Jamaica begins to question why the man was there in the first place and why he had a look of ecstasy on his face before the bison charged.  As she looks closer into the case, she finds herself blocked then allowed access to secrets of the Pueblo, then blocked again.  Elements of the unexplainable play a role -- Jamaica is cursed at one point, the proof of which is the sign of bear claw marks that appear on her face, red and swollen -- and dreams and visions are part and parcel of the investigation.  Whatever gets the case solved, I say, and Ault pulls the whole thing off with smooth writing, great characters, and a nail-biting ending.

The Wild series is full of fascinating information on Pueblo culture, and rich with envy-inducing descriptions of the natural beauty of New Mexico.  The descriptions are so compelling that the series could serve secondary duty as a travel guide to one of this country's great treasures, Taos Valley and the high desert around it.