People of Darkness
First edition cover
|
|
| Author | Tony Hillerman |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Francesca Greene |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Series | Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Navajo Tribal Police Series |
| Genre | Detective fiction |
| Set in | Navajo Nation in Southwestern United States |
| Published | 1980 Harper & Row |
| Media type | Print and audio |
| Pages | 202 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 6142519 |
| Preceded by | Listening Woman (1978) |
| Followed by | The Dark Wind (1982) |
People of Darkness is the fourth crime fiction novel in the Joe Leaphorn / Jim Chee Navajo Tribal Police series by author Tony Hillerman, first published in 1980. This is the first novel in the series to feature Officer Jim Chee.
The story is set in New Mexico, where Jim Chee takes a position at the Crownpoint, NM office of the Navajo Tribal Police. New crimes center around a very wealthy white man and several Navajos he befriended nearly 30 years earlier, helping them support their church. His wealth arose from uranium, in high demand back then, more than could be made from oil.
The novel was well-received: "well-written and gripping . . . [set] against a background of authentic Indian culture, an incredible achievement for a non-Indian writer." and "thoroughly splendid work: moody, atmospheric, complex without contrivance, and properly unsettling." A review written in 2010 was still impressed with the novel, saying "the great triumph of Hillerman’s art lies in the way he was able to weave this Native American theme into the story, along with all the accompanying cultural background, without ever compromising the mystery."
A bacteriologist in the cancer research hospital, waiting for lab results, sees a blond haired man move something from his car to a pick-up truck parked in an illegal space. She sees a tow truck pull the pick-up away; within seconds, the truck explodes, killing the operators of the tow truck. A few months later, Jim Chee is asked by Mrs. Vines to find a box stolen from her house, wanting to hire him off-duty. The box contains mementos and she would like it back before her husband returns; she thinks Emerson Charley is the thief. Mr. Vines returns, telling Chee not to bother with the task his wife asked him to do. Sheriff Sena is angry at Chee for talking with Mr. and Mrs. Vines. Sena shares the story of the six Navajo men in the crew under Dillon Charley who did not go to work at the oil field years back because Charley had a vision saying something bad would happen that day, which was true. Chee learns that the man whose truck exploded a few months back was Emerson Charley, son of Dillon and head of the People of Darkness church, who has been in the hospital at the University of New Mexico since that day, ill with cancer. Sena believes the motion sensor bomb in the pick-up truck was meant for Emerson, despite his fatal disease.
When Colton Wolf learns about Emerson Charley’s death, he goes to the hospital morgue to find, steal and bury his body, which the cancer group wants to autopsy. At a local rug auction, Tomas Charley tells Jim Chee that his father’s body was stolen from the hospital. Tomas tells Chee where the stolen box is and that it contains rocks and military medals. Chee meets Mary Landon and asks her out. Next day, they go to fetch the box from the malpais, and encounter Tomas Charley’s dead body, killed a minute before. The killer is the same man who met Tomas at the rug auction after Chee did. Colton, the killer, does not like witnesses, so he shoots Chee and sets fire to his vehicle.
...
Wikipedia