Captain Claude Groves has been a Texas Ranger for many years. His good friend and mentor, Alfred Jenkins, has retired from the Rangers but continues to give advice, mostly personal to Claude. Alfred is always giving Claude a hard time about his drinking and dating habits; Claude takes Alfred's well-intentioned nagging in stride.

When Alfred's daughter, Carla, becomes the first woman Texas Ranger, Claude agrees to take her under his wing. But Carla isn't the little girl he remembers; she's a woman grown and a beautiful one at that. And she's not too happy about being assigned to Claude. Carla is sure her father arranged her assignment and, unlike Claude, she mightily resents Alfred interfering with her life.

Claude is not happy about his unwanted attraction to his best friend's daughter, a woman twenty years his junior. However, Claude and Carla don't have much time to worry about personal issues or feelings because they have a crime to solve. Someone has brutally murdered an unidentified man in Sanderson, a small Texas oil town; the murder seems to mimic a Comanche form of execution.

The prime suspect is a 70-year-old man of Native American descent named Post Oak Jim Feathers. But neither Carla nor Claude believes that Jim was capable of committing this heinous crime, and there are many other factors to be considered. It's a fact that times are hard for Texas oilmen; they can't afford to drill and sell their oil because Arab nations are selling oil at rock-bottom prices.

Besides contentious neighbors and an Indian that refuses to talk to them, Carla and Claude must contend with hapless local law officials, Indian rituals and legends, and issues concerning Carla's status as the first woman Ranger. In addition, they must come to terms with their budding attraction for one another and they must deal with Alfred, Claude's best friend and a man who adores his only daughter.

While the murder in this book is brutal, there isn't much violence in the rest of the book. Murder at the Spirit Cave is a well-written police investigation: nothing flashy; nothing unrealistic, and it contains a bit of romance.

I like the mix of personal and professional issues in the story line. They're nicely intertwined throughout the book; I never felt that one overshadowed the other. I also like the way the plot unfolds logically and progressively as readers follow Claude and Carla's steps and their solid police work, which leads to the resolution of the case.

--Judith Flavell