People of Darkness (1980)

People of Darkness by Tony Hillerman is the fourth of the Navajo mysteries and the introduction of Jim Chee. Chee is hired as a private consultant to figure out who stole the apparently worthless rocks left in a wealthy man's box. Meanwhile, Leaphorn is curious about an old mining disaster that now seems to be connected with a spate of cancer deaths. In the middle of all of this, there's a man driven mad by his desire for revenge.

Hillerman's mysteries seem to bring together the old and the new, especially after the introduction of Jim Chee. As the younger of the two he gets the active cases — though usually as an officer of the Navajo Police. Joe Leaphorn, gets the gossip and cold cases and through patience, and the willingness to sit through many a long story, is able to see how the gossip fits together and (often) relates to the modern day case at hand.

People of Darkness was one of those rare Hillerman books where I was on the same page with Leaphorn. Usually I'm more of a Jim Chee person and I fail to see the big picture as it is unfolding before me. This time, though, I began to see how everything fit together in one of Leaphorn's earliest meetings to hear about the mining disaster and the belief that witchcraft was behind the cancer taking the survivors one by one.

Even though I saw how it fit all together, I still enjoyed the mystery. I listened to it on audio, performed by George Guidall. He has the perfect voice for these books. ( )

Tony Hillerman introduces us to Jim Chee in this episode of his marvelous series of Navajo police. Chee is facing a big decision, should he join the FBI (he has passed the tests and been asked to go to Quantico), or should he remain in New Mexico as a policeman, while staying to continue learning to be a singer?

While he is debating this decision he is drawn into a case of simple burglary that just continues to grow and expand, including oil rig explosions, dead bodies disappearing and suddenly being stalked by a killer.

Chee isn't alone in his quest, Mary Landon has managed to get involved in the mystery and Chee has to keep her alive along with keeping himself from harm.

I enjoyed meeting Chee and Mary, it will be interesting to move forward in this series to when Chee starts working with Leaphorn. ( )

In this one, Jim Chee meets Mary Landon, and solves an old case involving uranium, peyote rituals, and too many deaths by cancer to be accidental. Oh, and someone is out to kill him and Mary because they know a little too much. The landscape is as evocative as ever, and mention is made of Captain Leaphorn, but the two are not yet working together. Good book in the continuing series.

Love the insights into the Navajo culture and reservation life, but the plot is pretty obvious and the relies on that hoariest of adventure/mystery cliches, the paid assassin. If there were really as many professional, paid killer as mystery writers would have us believe, there would be no mothers-in-law, divorce lawyers, or gym teachers left alive in the world. ( )

Skinwalkers, Navajo Wolves and Witches: 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.