The Wailing Wind is a novel written by Tony Hillerman. The story follows the investigation of two old friends, Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Sergeant Jim Chee. Leaphorn is now retired from the Navajo Tribal Police and Chee has a new partner, Officer Bernadette Manuelito. Each searches for answers pertaining to their own investigation, and both cases seem to be pointing our detectives in one main direction, towards the fabled Golden Calf Mine.
Chee and Bernadette are pursuing the more recent case of a young man's murder. The murder victim, Thomas Doherty, had been carrying documents pertaining to the Golden Calf Mine. And though Chee's plate is full enough worrying over this case, Bernadette adds to the problem by mishandling the crime scene and bringing down the wrath of the FBI. Hoping to regain some of her respect and dignity in her boss's eyes, Bernadette then strikes out on her own. She returns to the crime scene only to become the unlucky target of a sniper hiding in the hills set on stopping their investigation of the legendary Golden Calf Mine.
Leaphorn has his hands full as well, as he delves deeper into an older case pertaining to the death of a con man and the disappearance of a wealthy man's wife. Years before, Wiley Denton, an oil tycoon, killed a con man, Marvin McKay, who was trying to sell him what he said was a map to the lost mine. Denton nearly paid McKay for the maps, but after looking them over, he realized that they were fakes and a struggle ensued between the two men that ended with Denton shooting and killing McKay. Denton claimed self-defense and plea-bargained his sentence down to less than a year. Denton's young and beautiful wife Linda Denton, mysteriously disappears the very same day of the shooting.
