Craig Monson's Reviews > People of Darkness

Although the title sounds a bit biblical (recalling Isaiah 9:2), the “people of darkness” are, according to Jim Chee, who turns up for the first time here in a Hillerman mystery, the Dine’etse-tle, the humblest of Navajo predators: moles. In this case the title also refers to a group of Dinee Native American Church members, suspected of stealing a mysterious box of mementos from a wealthy Anglo who got rich quick in the New Mexico uranium boom. Jim Chee is no sooner on the case, however, than the rich Anglo starts to do his best to discourage him. The people of darkness seem also to have been falling sick and dying off over the years, as Jim Chee discovers, and one of them barely escapes being blown to bits in chapter 1, while checking into the cancer ward at UNM hospital in Albuquerquqe.

As Officer Chee works to figure things out, he is stalked by the extremely sinister Colton Wolf, a hit man, who, as the Dinee would say, “behaves as if he has no family”—and, indeed, he doesn’t, which helps explain how he turned out as he did. It’s interesting to find Hillerman taking us inside the mind of a bad guy quite this much. For long stretches, Wolf eclipses Jim, who is off sleuthing somewhere while Wolf meticulously plans Jim’s demise. This leads to higher octane suspense than in some Hillerman mysteries, which I thought was nicely handled.

This is our first introduction to Jim Chee, who is still torn between the bilagaana world (a training course at the FBI in DC is imminent) and his Dinee roots. He still aspires to become a hataali (singer/healer) and passes the time memorizing ritual chants for Nightway during long drives across the Rez. (His use of a tape recorder to help in the process was a surprise—the Navajo Traditional Apprenticeship Project in recent years has taken a dim view of scholarship recipients using such devices, so it’s hard to imagine Jim’s maternal uncle and teacher would approve.) Although Jim has yet to encounter Janet Peet (who is presumably still back east somewhere, shopping for Prada handbags), a blonde, blue-eyed school teacher from Crownpoint catches his eye and joins him in his misadventures. (Jim it’ll never work.)