People of Darkness

In "People of Darkness", Navajo tribal police Sargent Jim Chee stumbles onto a mystery and unravels multiple crimes after being asked to find a keepsake box belonging to a wealthy man outside of Chee's jurisdiction. The wealthy man's second wife specifically requested Chee as investigator because Jim Chee is considered an authority on his Indian tribe's religion, studying to be a "yataalii" (a medicine man or "singer") and the suspects are thought to be The People of Darkness. It is in this book that blue-eyed blonde, Mary Landon first makes her acquaintance with Chee. I found her to be an unlikable character with an aggressive, pushy, prodding, provocative, smart-mouth personality and arrogant attitude and was glad to know, from reading subsequent books of this particular series, Chee and she never married. Alas, it is also in this book that Chee is on another mission - to learn more about white people and their culture. His yataalii uncle, who was to train him in the art along the path of balance and beauty, instructed Chee that he must first truly understand the value system of the white people, knowing everything it contains, before fully being able to embrace his decision of following the traditional Navajo walk. Tony Hillerman packed this book full of relevant Navajo culture and lore, as always. Near the end of the story, Chee explains, "We don't have much violence, we Navajos. What there is is mostly associated with witchcraft. Changing Woman taught us how to cope with the Navajo Wolves. We turn the evil around so it works against the witch." The story ends with Chee's spirit in need of repair: "But he knew the cause and the cure. Changing Woman had taught them about it when she formed the first clans of the Dinee from her own skin. The strange ways of strange people hurt the spirit, turned the Navajo away from beauty. Returning to beauty required a cure." Hence the planning for a traditional Enemy Way ceremony to be held. As with all of the Tony Hillerman books, I would give more than five stars if I could.

This is the fourth book in Tony Hillerman's masterpiece "Navajo Detectives" series and one of the best of the whole series. In the first three books Lt. Joe Leaphorn is the main character. "People of Darkness" introduces Sgt. Jim Chee, a younger and more complex man who is torn between the white man's world - and a career in the FBI - and the Navajo way as a "singer" or shaman. Also introduced in this book is an appealing, peaches-and-cream Wisconsin girl, Mary Landon, as a mild love interest for Chee. A bomb goes off in a hospital parking lot, apparently aimed at killing a man who is already dying of cancer, a box containing little of apparent value disappears from a rich man's house, and an oil well explosion thirty years back has some connection to these events. This is vintage Hillerman: a story than ranges over vast areas of time and space. The villain in "People of Darkness" is one of Hillerman's best: a cold professional with the vulnerability of a battered child. Hillerman's strengths are authenticity and atmosphere. Elements of Navajo culture, religion, and folkways are woven into the fabric of his novels. His landscapes are harsh and spectacular. Nature is magnificent, but also menacing. In this exotic setting, the supernatural seems almost possible and little chilly fingers tickle your spine. If you are an urbanite, you may not like Hillerman; but if you are drawn to big, blank spots on the map you will likely love him. Not the least of his accomplishments is that he has probably taught more people about the Navajo -- and generated more interest in Navajo culture -- than any other writer.

The title refers to the members of an underground Native American Church peyote cult whose totem is the mole, "the predator of the nadir." The mystery involves the attempted murder of a dying man, the disappearance of his corpse from the hospital morgue, a uranium mine, a fatal oil-well explosion 30 years earlier, and the theft of a keepsake box filled mostly with black rocks. This novel has the distinction of featuring the scariest, most chilling villain of the series: an emotionless, psychopathic, methodical killer for hire who leaves nothing to chance. The suspense builds as the point of view alternates between the killer's and Navajo policeman Jim Chee's. "People of Darkness" is one of the best in a literate and very entertaining Southwestern series. For other well-written American Indian-related mysteries, try James D. Doss' Shaman series and Margaret Coel's Arapaho series.

To me, this is is Hillerman's second-best mystery (after "Dance Hall of the Dead"). Introducing a new detective seems to have sparked his creativity, and his cast of characters is one of the best he ever created (although he seems to have recycled some of them in later books). His hired killer is a psycho but still sympathetic, the fragile blond schoolteacher is tougher than she looks, and even the minor characters (such as the lab technician in the first scene) are well done. Jim Chee is a complex, interesting personality from the very beginning. As usual, the various settings in which the story takes place are vividly described. And "how he done it" involves, in my opinion, one of the cleverest murder weapons in the history of the detective novel. This is a winner all the way through.

This book is my favourite of all of Tony Hillerman's work.The plot is perfect,it is full of action and the landscape is fabulous .