The Pumpkin Seed Massacre: Ben Pecos Mysteries Book 1 by Susan Slater

Ben comes home to spend some time with his grandmother and learn more about his Indian heritage.  He certainly didn't expect Indian legends to come true.  When they decide to expand the cemetery, the legend says making it bigger will cause deaths to fill it.  Unfortunately, that seems to be true...

The author and Columbine Publishing shared a copy of this book with me for review (thank you).  It has been published.

It starts with elders dying and then the disease hits the younger ones, too.  It's a form of respiratory illness and it takes little time from onset to death.  They don't know what it is or how it is spreading.  When his grandmother dies from it, he decides to find answers.

He meets a journalist who is also researching the case and he develops a romance interest with her.  They have different plans for their future, though, so it looks doomed.  Then the tribal governor dies.

The only common thing they've hit on is that the governor ate pumpkin seeds and it might be the cause.  How, no one knows.  Then they begin to suspicion it's not an accident; this was deliberate and the disease was created in a lab.

With tribal superstitions, greedy developers, and ruthless killers there is plenty to keep you reading.  This is no mystery disease, it was done on purpose.  The reason is chilling...