People of Darkness Add a review

People of Darkness is a crime novel by American writer Tony Hillerman, the fourth in the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Navajo Tribal Police series, first published in 1980. It is the first novel in the series to feature Officer Jim Chee. The AMC television series Dark Winds adapted the novel in its second season.

Jim Chee takes a position at the Crownpoint, New Mexico, office of the Navajo Tribal Police. New crimes involve a very wealthy white man and several Navajos he befriended nearly 30 years earlier, helping them support their church. His wealth arose from uranium mining, much more profitable than oil drilling.

The novel was well-received: "well-written and gripping . . . [set] against a background of authentic Indian culture, an incredible achievement for a non-Indian writer." and "thoroughly splendid work: moody, atmospheric, complex without contrivance, and properly unsettling." A review written in 2010 was still impressed with the novel, declaring "the great triumph of Hillerman’s art lies in the way he was able to weave this Native American theme into the story, along with all the accompanying cultural background, without ever compromising the mystery."