The Dark Wind

By Tony Hillerman

Don’t miss the TV series, Dark Winds, based on the Leaphorn, Chee, & Manuelito novels, now on AMC and AMC+! 

The fifth novel in Tony Hillerman's iconic Leaphorn and Chee mystery series

The corpse had been “scalped,” its palms and soles removed after death. Sergeant Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police knows immediately he will have his hands full with this case, a certainty that is supported by the disturbing occurrences to follow. A mysterious nighttime plane crash, a vanishing shipment of cocaine, and a bizarre attack on a windmill only intensify Chee’s fears. A dark and very ill wind is blowing through the Southwestern desert, a gale driven by Navajo sorcery and white man’s greed. And it will sweep away everything unless Chee can somehow change the weather.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Mar 17, 2009
• ISBN: 9780061797613

Tony Hillerman

TONY HILLERMAN served as president of the Mystery Writers of America and received the Edgar and Grand Master Awards. His other honors include the Center for the American Indian’s Ambassador Award, the Spur Award for Best Western Novel, and the Navajo Tribal Council Special Friend of the Dineh Award. A native of Oklahoma, Tony Hillerman lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico, until his death in 2008.

Reviews for The Dark Wind

[bookswoman · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Jim Chee has three cases on his hands. He is trying to identify a "John Doe", he is trying to find the former employee of one of the local Trading Posts who left with a fair amount of native jewelry, and he is trying to find out who is damaging a windmill - repeatedly.

While he is keeping watch over the windmill one night he hears a plane flying low overhead and soon hears a crash. He is the first on the scene but is soon told that this case belongs to the FBI and the narcotics people. But, Jim, being Jim, can't completely stay out of it, especially once it starts involving his other three cases.

This one was fun, not exactly complicated but with a few twists and turns that keep you reading. I enjoyed it, a fun, fast read.

[mrslee_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Jim Chee is on his own to sort through difficult crimes such as windmill vandalizing, bootlegging, robbery and drug-runners who have been murdered. Oops scratch that last off the list. He is definitely NOT looking into that. How can he help it if his other investigations keep leading him right to clues for the murder?This may be my favorite solo Chee novel. No women to complicate issues, we get to see Chee at his best. A puzzle solver, seeking wholeness in answers. I missed Joe Leaphorn, but Chee was fine on his own.

[ffortsa · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The second Jim Chee mystery, when he is transferred to Captain Largo's team at Window Rock. He has to work differently, as a stranger in the area, and the difference shows. This episode explores the Hopi more than the Navajo, a nice contrast. The basic story centers on what appears to be drug smuggling in the Painted Desert, but too many things go wrong, and Chee has to figure out how to harmonize the disparate factors of Navajo, Hopi and white cultural values to properly sort out the puzzle. As always, a compelling tale.

[markatread · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the second of the Jim Chee novels. It is a very solid mystery that has as it's background the shared land between the Navajos and the Hopis. The federal government split the land up between the two tribes and forced each of the two tribes to move off the land that had ben determined to belong to the other tribe. This was one of those decisions that ended up with a lot of angry folks on both sides and it would seem to be a perfect setting for a mystery. But the truth is that not much is made of this set up. The religious differences between the two tribes is delved into and the Navajo way of life is again used to some good advantage, but the use of a lot of upset peole hardly plays into the plot at all. There is no romantic angst this time for Jim Chee and it does unclutter the story some. Plot points are not hurried and each of them makes sense. Very solid story.Note: There is a very bad movie based on this book. In the movie Joe Leaphorn appears but he is not in the book.

[tzelman_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Jim Chee investigating Coke, murder, and Hopi culture--all very successfully