Tony Hillerman

Chilling discoveries unearthed at a dig for Navajo clay pots bring Lt. Joe Leaphorn and Officer Jim Chee of the Navajo Police to the site and put them on the trail of stolen artifacts, a missing woman, and bizarre and mystifying murders. Reissue.

A Thief of Time

Sarah Sammis

I've been reading Tony Hillerman's Navajo mysteries on and off since college — twenty years. I haven't them in order and while things do progress through the books, it doesn't really matter to the individual mysteries.

My most recent read, from my personal collection, was A Thief of Time. The title refers to grave robbery. It begins with an archeologist finding something remarkable on a site she might not have the permits for. She goes missing shortly after making her discovery.

Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee treat the case as both a homicide and a missing persons. She has been gone for so long she's probably dead but there isn't evidence to definitely push the investigation in that direction.

Mixed in with the mystery are reflections on Navajo beliefs about life and death. There's discussion of life on and off the res. and the disputed borders. Finally, there's the permitting issue: what can be explored and what can't.

As with all the other books I've read in the series, I found it a page turner. It was a good mix of thought provoking passages and mixed into an entertaining who-done-it.

A Thief of Time

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