Part of Leaphorn & Chee, book 17
First published 2006
Former Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn thought retirement would be quiet. Then Billy Tuve walks into trouble, accused of robbing a trading post after trying to pawn a valuable diamond. The slow young man insists a strange old man in the canyon gave him the stone. Leaphorn believes him and agrees to help clear his name. The diamond traces back fifty years to a passenger plane that crashed in the Grand Canyon, scattering 172 bodies and one briefcase full of gems among the cliffs. Now dangerous outsiders are circling Navajo territory. One seeks a severed arm more than treasure. Another will kill to bury old secrets. As Leaphorn teams with Sergeant Jim Chee to follow the trail deeper into the canyon, they discover that solving this puzzle means confronting both human predators and the deadly landscape itself. The investigation pulls them into a web of greed and violence where the past refuses to stay buried.
Genres: adventure, mystery, crime, thriller
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family
Setting: Grand Canyon, Navajo Territory
Period: Retirement
336 pages · Paperback · HarperTorch