Tony Hiller was a favorite author of mine. The native America's and their religion and customs are great. I actually got to see the area were the stories
Were written. I think I’ read everything he has written. This audiobook was well done as well. Highly recommended.

FROM AMAZON: Two Native American boys have vanished into thin air, leaving a pool of blood behind them. Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Tribal Police has no choice but to suspect the very worst, since the blood that stains the parched New Mexico ground once flowed through the veins of one of the missing, a young Zuñi. But his investigation into a terrible crime is being complicated by an important archaeological dig . . . and a steel hypodermic needle. And the unique laws and sacred religious rites of the Zuñi people are throwing impassable roadblocks in Leaphorn’s already twisted path, enabling a craven murderer to elude justice or, worse still, kill again. ( )

Leaphorn investigates the disappearance of two young males who were experimenting with the occult. Interesting read, with information about archaeology thrown into the mix. ( )

In Dance Hall of the Dead, Zuni and Navaho sacred traditions were woven through the investigation into the murder of a young Zuni boy whose death seemed to be without any kind of logical motivation.

A bit too didactic at times on native traditions. ( )

A Zuni young teen is murdered and his Navajo friend, a Zuni-wannabe, has disappeared, Leaphorn shows his tracking skill, finding moccasin prints days old, anticipating where and when a hungry hunter would go to find game. He also shows his compassion for a young hippie woman who has nowhere to go but an abusive situation. He has no compassion for the white man who won't stand up for her. What he doesn't see is a trap and gets himself in trouble, and a tiny detail he forgets means he doesn't get to a victim in time.
In the end, the traditional enforcers take care of their own, which is more satisfactory than having the Bilagaana outsiders doing a rescue.
A quick, simple read. ( )

This was my very first Hillerman novel, and I was (to borrow that all-so-famous cliche) 'hooked from the first page.' Hillerman's authentic insight into Native American modernity disallows his narrative from regressing into some hyper-sympathetic cultural misappropriation lunacy. That said, 'Dance Hall of the Dead' has a tight plot which moves rapidly without obfuscating the reader. We have grizzled Leaphorn navigating archaeological frameworks, tribal vendettas and all this to solve the disappearance of two tribal boys. This truly is a novel of 'world's collide' dimension.



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