Includes The Dark Wind and The Ghostway

This is the fourth book in the Chee/Leaphorn stories, I’m filling in a few books I missed when reading the series. Jim Chee has an offer to join the FBI which he is considering, or to continue his studies to become a Hataalii, a tribal medicine man.

There is a backstory of an explosion at a well logging event that killed a number of people. Years later a bomb explodes in a pickup as a tow driver is hooking it up for towing, the target was a man already dying from cancer. Then someone steels a keepsake box from a rich man, B. J. Vines, leaving many valuables that are in sight. Chee’s first involvement was when Mrs. Vines asked Chee to recover the box.

The People of Darkness are involved, somehow. This is a religious sect that worships the mole. It is not recognized by most Navajo for its use of peyote.

During his investigation, he finds himself and a woman, Mary Landon, who finds herself wandering with Chee during his investigations, the target of an assassin.

The locals believe Mr. Vines is a witch, Chee must find a solution that satisfies the local cultures and the white men.

The book is excellent and rich in Navajo culture. ( )

Jim Chee is a young Navajo, contemplating a law enforcement career with the FBI, when he's hired by a local woman to find an item taken during a burglary. And suddenly he faces pushback, evasions, and bullets.

I liked the characters in this mystery, and how the author skillfully interweaves Chee's heritage into the story. ( )

Tony Hillerman writes great Native American based fiction. I believe I have read all his books.

FROM AMAZON: A dying man is murdered. A rich man's wife agrees to pay $3,000 for the return of a stolen box of rocks.

A series of odd, inexplicable events is haunting Sergeant Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police and drawing him alone into the Bad Country of the merciless Southwest, where nothing good can survive...including Chee. Because an assassin waits for him there, protecting a 30-year-old vision that greed has sired and blood has nourished. And only one man will walk away. ( )

People of Darkness is a well written suspenseful story. The adventure begins innocently enough with a Navajo police lieutenant being asked to locate a keepsake box that was stolen from a home safe. People of Darkness explores why a cult of miners all died from cancer and what has this got to do with the keepsake box? The book received four stars in this review for a good story. ( )