The Blessing Way (Leaphorn & Chee #1)

by Tony Hillerman

The white man sees the desolation and calls it a desert, McKee thought, but the Navajo name for it means “Beautiful Valley.”

McKee had concluded years ago that the intricacies of feminine logic were beyond his comprehension.

“Why kill somebody like Horseman? Just another poor soul who didn’t quite know how to be a Navajo and couldn’t learn to act like a white. No good for anything.”

Now that was changing and there were more young men like Horseman. Souls lost somewhere between the values of The People and the values of the whites. No good even at crime.

This unexpected fact visible at his feet fell like a stone in a reflecting pool, turning the mirrored image into shattered confusion.

The Navajo language is too specific and precise to lend itself to effective profanity. Leaphorn cursed in Spanish and then—at length—in English.