Broken in Two is clearly labeled as a romance, but in my opinion it ought to be sold and marketed as a mystery. There is little romance here, and when it does appear it seems more like a distraction than anything else. Fortunately, the mystery is pretty engaging, and the setting is well-crafted and interesting. The end result is an average read.

This is more or less an “Indian Romance,” but it’s a contemporary one, so it avoids many of the pitfalls of Indian historicals. It takes place on the Navajo and Hopi reservations, and the setting is clearly well-researched. The hero is Frank Reardon, a white man working for the FBI, who is trying to find out what happened to some Indian art stolen from a Denver museum. The case also involves a homicide, and the FBI thinks the man who was killed may have been responsible for the art thefts. The heroine is Ella Honanie, who is the sister of the dead man. Frank shows up looking for answers at the trading post Ella runs. Since Ella’s trading post sells some valuable art and artifacts, Frank thinks she may be in on the theft. His suspicious attitude doesn’t particularly endear him to Ella, and they get off on the wrong foot.

From here you would expect the sparks to fly, or the sexual tension to mount. Neither main character really has time for that, though, because they are both knee-deep in a mystery involving a missing sacred tablet, a half-crazy banished Hopi woman, the FBI, local law enforcement, Ella’s runaway niece Jenny, and the American Indian Rights Organization (AIRO). Trust me when I tell you it’s too complicated to explain, because after finishing the book I still wasn’t sure how it all came together. Several questions are left completely unanswered.

That’s not to say the mystery plot was bad. Even with the loose ends, the intricate nature of the plot made for exciting reading. The setting provided a great backdrop for all the action, and the several secondary characters played important roles as all the action unfolded. But one reason I would hesitate to call this book a romance is that it is very plot-driven, as mysteries tend to be, rather then character-driven, as romances usually are. Frank and Jenny interested me separately, but I never really could picture them as a couple. And I never thought I would want less romance in a book labeled “romance,” but every time the characters had any kind of romantic thought it just seemed like a distraction from the mystery plot, which was far more interesting. There is a single love scene at the tail end, and all I could think was that Frank and Ella didn’t really know each other well enough to be doing that.

Broken in Two has some interesting mystical elements which add to the flavor of the story. If you are interested in Indian mysticism and like a good mystery, you may want to give this a try. Just be warned that if you are reading it as the romance it purports to be, you are bound to be disappointed.