Talking God

A Navajo police officer and a Navajo anthropologist investigate a murder and a desecrated cemetery that lead them from the Arizona/New Mexico border to Washington, D.C., where the case intersects with a conspiracy involving the Smithsonian and a plot to steal sacred artifacts. The plot is driven by a mystery-box structure (who is the killer, what is the conspiracy) and a ticking-clock element (the theft of the artifacts). The tone is atmospheric and tense rather than purely procedural, and the book deals with cultural desecration and the ethics of museum curation, which elevates it beyond a standard crime novel. Tropes: a dual-protagonist structure (Leaphorn and Chee) and a mystery box around the conspiracy, with a slow-burn build toward the D.C. climax.