A Thief of Time

Visiting Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee in the pages of a Hillerman mystery is the next best thing to sleeping under the stars in Navajo country, wondering if there is magic in the sky above.

A Thief of Time has atmosphere to spare, and a complex plot. Leaphorn and Chee are also fleshed out more than usual in this terrific entry. Both men are dealing with personal issues as this mystery begins. Chee hasn't quite figured out how he feels about Mary leaving him because he could not leave his Navajo way of life behind, and move to the city with her. He is smitten with a pretty Navajo attorney named Janet, but she's with someone else. Leaphorn, meanwhile, is on terminal leave and retiring after an unexpected death which has hit home.

Neither man show more can explain Leaphorn's obsession with finding a missing pot hunter named Eleanor Friedman-Bernal. Perhaps Leaphorn is simply distracting himself from the pain. All that is clear is that a Navajo would not be involved; because according to Navajo tradition, stealing pots would make one a Thief of Time.

Chee's allowing a rather large backhoe get stolen right under his nose will have ties to Leaphorn's investigation. Once more the young policeman with an appreciation for the old ways of the Navajo will be investigating with Leaphorn all across the Navajo territory. This one stretches all the way up into Utah, and then down the San Juan River. Leaphorn's recollection of another death will tie-in with Eleanor's disappearance, who was collecting pots made by the mysterious Anasazi. Was something she discovered worth killing for?

Leaphorn and Chee will be hundreds of miles apart when they reach the same conclusion in this quite complex and multi-layered mystery. One will have to race to the other as things turn ugly, and two very different men will find common ground when Leaphorn asks the unexpected of young Chee.

This one is a real gem in this fine series. Hillerman's description of the thousand foot cliffs along the San Juan River at night, and a starry sky filled with Navajo mystery create an unforgettable portrait of the America's Southwest. A terrific read! show less

Hillerman has a deep, from the heart, love of the land. It shows in his descriptions that bring geology and botany into the mix. And there is enough passing detail so that you could find things on a map and peruse images if you had the inclination. He is also a shrewd observer of human nature that is expressed in a whole gamut of Navajos as well as interlopers, good and bad. He is also a great writer. It is a potent, engaging mix. This was a great installation in the series. I'd gladly recommend it.

Academic competition is fierce, especially when it’s between colleagues trying to get to the historic pottery remnants first to prove their theory and get published. Oh, and recognition in their field.

A thief of time is someone who robs graves in order to take something. In this case, it’s all about the Anasazi, a tribe which mysteriously disappeared around 1200CE. The ruins left behind appear as though the people planned on coming back, but never did.

The black market for pottery is hot, people will pay exorbitant amounts to own a piece of “authentic” pottery with questionable provenance. While Jim Chee is trying to chase down a stolen backhoe, Joe Leaphorn is trying to track down a missing anthropologist.

Personal baggage is show more heavy in this book. Chee’s relationship with teacher Mary Landon has hit the skids. She’s gone back to the midwest to be with her family and go back to school. In a letter to him, she expresses her deep love for him but sees no way around the white vs. Navajo conundrum they keep bumping against.

Joe Leaphorn is mourning the loss of beloved wife, Emma, who didn’t have Alzheimer’s after all but didn’t survive the surgery to remove a tumor. My heart sank when I read of her death. Interesting how easy it is to get caught up in the lives of fictional characters isn’t it?

While working their individual cases, Chee and Leaphorn eventually cross paths and discover they’re working the same case from different angles. The stolen backhoe is being used to uncover pottery, while a different anthropologist is stealing jaw bones to prove his theory.

A hike to a nearly unknown, unreachable Anasazi ruin, two helicopters converging on the same spot, and the case is solved. But this one seemed rather convoluted to me as it involved a decades old murder case Leaphorn had worked, a traveling tent show leading Navajos to the “Jesus Way,” and those using Chaco Culture National Historic Park as their base to study the Anasazi. Too many moving pieces to keep track of, and an unbelievable ending involving the aforementioned helicopters.

But the thing I have always enjoyed about Hillerman’s books is his love of the Southwest and his use of Navajo culture to keep his mysteries from being just another murder/stolen object procedural. His attention to the cultural differences pulls me in and keeps me there. show less

I am really glad I took the time to read this book. The ending made me think long and hard about Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, and his idea on living For the Love of another, even when that person is dead. It is enjoyable, fairly fast paced with a shifting third and sometimes omniscient narrator, but really good. Lot of nice dramatic irony when the reader knows something that none of the characters no. And I love the conflict around the Blessing Way and his resolution of it at the end. very nice.

Excellent characterizations and great plot plus unexpected twists. Genuine portrayal of the problems with unauthorized digging, illegal trade of ancient artifacts and academic rivalry.
After my last re-read (2024), I upped my rating to 5-stars. Even though I semi-remembered the plot and the penultimate dénouement, the story was still suspenseful, the writing lyrical and the setting a source of serenity. Hillerman possessed a very fine sense of atmosphere and evocative style of writing. In my wide reading of the so-called cosy mystery genre have I never encountered a similar talent.

An anthropologist who is studying Anasazi pottery goes missing and Leaphorn and Chee end up working the case for different reasons (as is common in this series). This is a great installment in this very solid series and I think it was the first one I ever read; I'm very happy that it is as good as I remember it. In this installment, the insight into how archaeologists and physical anthropologists work and how the black market works adds great texture to the story. The landscape descriptions and the characterizations are great as usual and Hillerman always weaves in a lot of cultural aspects into the story that brings an extra layer to the mystery. This is an excellent series and I am thoroughly enjoying this round of rereads.

A wonderful Leaphorn/Chee mystery based around a missing archaeologist. As usual, Hillerman includes wonderful geographical information and setting; but he also adds information about Anasazi history, Anasazi pottery, Navajo culture, archaeological ethics, and personal issues from Leaphorn and Chee’s lives to the mix. The mystery has a surprising twist, but even if you figure out “who-dun-it”, the story remains interesting and delightful.

Thief of Time.doc