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3.5***
From the dust jacket: When Lt. Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Tribal Police discovers a corpse with a mouth full of sand at a crime scene seemingly without tracks or clues, he is ready to suspect a supernatural killer. Blood on the rocks … a body on the high mesa … Leaphorn must stalk the Wolf-Witch along a chilling trail between mysticism and murder.
This is the first in the series featuring Leaphorn. Hillerman weaves in considerable Navajo lore in this very real story of murder and mayhem. ...more
From the dust jacket: When Lt. Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Tribal Police discovers a corpse with a mouth full of sand at a crime scene seemingly without tracks or clues, he is ready to suspect a supernatural killer. Blood on the rocks … a body on the high mesa … Leaphorn must stalk the Wolf-Witch along a chilling trail between mysticism and murder.
This is the first in the series featuring Leaphorn. Hillerman weaves in considerable Navajo lore in this very real story of murder and mayhem. ...more
2025: Just read a non-fiction book about the Grand Canyon & it made me want to re-visit the southwestern landscape, so this series is now on hold on audio.
2021: I waited 3 months for the audio from the library & listened to the whole book in one day! It was really good & I remembered zero about the story so it was like a new novel. I didn't remember that Joe Leaphorn isn't really the main character. Although he is in it & solves the murders & the mystery, his anthropologist friend is the one who ...more
2021: I waited 3 months for the audio from the library & listened to the whole book in one day! It was really good & I remembered zero about the story so it was like a new novel. I didn't remember that Joe Leaphorn isn't really the main character. Although he is in it & solves the murders & the mystery, his anthropologist friend is the one who ...more
I read this in a single flight (and not even a long one!). Very page-turning, and easy to sink into. I wanted something set in Arizona as I was heading there and this didn't disappoint! Creative, descriptive of the setting, and a good, pretty twisty, mystery.
I had some initial concerns of a white guy in the 1970s writing Navajo culture, but it didn't feel problematic in the sense my worries may have taken me (I can't comment on accuracy though).
There were a couple lacks of clarity near the mid ...more
I had some initial concerns of a white guy in the 1970s writing Navajo culture, but it didn't feel problematic in the sense my worries may have taken me (I can't comment on accuracy though).
There were a couple lacks of clarity near the mid ...more
Although this is the first of the Joe Leaphorn books, it's the second one I've read. And it's also likely to be my last. I really thought I would love these books, but they have both fallen flat for me.
For starters, this book has far less Joe Leaphorn than the blurb would have you believe. A young Navajo man, on the run from the law, is found dead beside a road. There are no signs of foul play, but there's a look of terror on his face - and the reader knows that just before his death, he saw a ...more
For starters, this book has far less Joe Leaphorn than the blurb would have you believe. A young Navajo man, on the run from the law, is found dead beside a road. There are no signs of foul play, but there's a look of terror on his face - and the reader knows that just before his death, he saw a ...more
Joe Leaphorn is investigating the death of a young man found suffocated by sand. Professor Bergen McKee is friends with Leaphorn and is in the area collecting Navajo witchcraft stories while a fellow professor investigates the Anasazi ruins in the area. Leaphorn's case soon becomes connected to McKee's research. The book is told from the POV of both Leaphorn and McKee but McKee gets more time which is interesting because the series goes on to feature Leaphorn. The book was a bit slow to start of
...more
Jul 28, 2011
Gaijinmama
marked it as to-read
Apr 28, 2012
ilovebakedgoods (Teresa)
marked it as to-read
Dec 11, 2012
Melissa (ladybug)
rated it
really liked it
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review of another edition
Shelves:
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yearly-challenge
May 18, 2014
Ellen
marked it as to-read
Apr 29, 2015
Delitealex
marked it as to-read
Sep 02, 2015
Kristen
marked it as to-read
Jan 31, 2017
Shelley
marked it as to-read
Jun 04, 2018
Carrie
marked it as to-read
Aug 07, 2019
Mary X
marked it as wishlist
Jan 15, 2021
Jim Townsend
marked it as to-read
Feb 16, 2024
Catsalive
marked it as to-read
