People of Darkness: An American Indian Mystery

This book is the 4th part of the Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee Series by Tony Hillerman. Chee is a Navajo detective who is put on the case of a robbery because he is an Indian and a Navajo cult has stolen an artifact of religious value. Chee’s knowledge about the Navajo’s views of witchcraft is the key to solving the crime.

At the beginning of the case he is faced with odd questions: Why is the target of a murder a dying man? Why is a box of rocks worth stealing? What is so valuable about these rocks that a wife of a rich man would pay thousands of dollars for their return? Could the box contain secrets and something besides rocks? Jim Chee thinks there might be a secret after a chief of the “People of Darkness” clan is killed. At first the name of the cult means nothing to him, but when their leaders are being killed he begins to discover what this underworld cult is about.

As he searches for answers about an old mine “accident," Chee risks his life and Mary Landon, a school teacher. An assassin waits for him in the night. If he can solve the mystery of the mine accident, he will be able to discover answers for the current day situation.

In this novel Hillerman explores the difference of Native American culture and the white man’s world. It is in the middle of the two worlds that Chee feels torn. The author explores these differences and shows Chee’s feelings to illustrate the similarities and differences of the cultures.