This Edgar Award-winning novel has been described as "unadorned yet profound, sparse yet beautiful" in its depiction of a murder case among the Navajo people.
When two young boys disappear, one of them leaving a pool of blood behind, Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Tribal Police finds himself not only tracking a ruthless killer but caught up in the intricate mysteries of the Zuni religion as well. For the dead boy was to have played a key role in an important ritual of the Zuni people.
An added complication to the investigation and search is the missing boys' interest in an archaeological dig that seems to prove a controversial theory. And the FBI's blind certainty that it's all related to a small hippie commune's drug dealing doesn't exactly help either. Leaphorn patiently tracks the killer into the desert to a terrifying confrontation . . .
'Crime Masterworks' is a library of the greatest crime fiction ever written, chosen with the help of today's leading crimewriters and critics. However, they are categorised - hard-boiled, suspense, police procedural - all books in the series are the best of their kind.
