Dance Hall of the Dead

Two boys from a school serving both the Navajo and Zuni tribes go missing, and one of them turns up murdered. A Navajo police lieutenant, Leaphorn, and a Zuni officer work the case across the Navajo and Zuni lands of the American Southwest, while the search for the other boy continues.

The inquiry brings in a Zuni shaman and a Navajo shaman. One of them has a vision of the future, and it bears on what the investigators are chasing. The two tribes see the case differently, and that friction runs under every interview.

The plot is a crime mystery with a second thread about drug trafficking, which involves a local dealer and a corrupt official. A tense standoff at a Zuni ceremony puts the investigators under real pressure. The story is told through the viewpoints of Leaphorn and Chee.

A melancholy runs under the tension and the puzzle, rooted in what happens to the boys. Both policemen and shamans act as guides, to the investigation and to the boys, who lose their innocence along the way. Whether the missing boy can be found is the question that drives the book.