Tony Hillerman's Novel "Dance Hall of the Dead"

Released in 1973, Dance Hall of the Dead is the second novel by Tony Hillerman that features the character Joe Leaphorn. The mystery begins with some pretty evident facts surrounding it - a pool of blood, two young boys, one Navajo and one Zuni, and both are missing. Can Leaphorn get to the bottom of this mystery in time to save a life, or will it all end badly?

Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn is a Navajo Tribal Police Officer in Arizona that is called out to a nearby Zuni Indian reservation to investigate a possible murder case. In order for Navajo detective Joe Leaphorn to solve this mystery he will have to call upon his knowledge of Navajo and Zuni tradition, as well as his incredible skills as a tracker. The investigation takes Lieutenant Leaphorn from the Navajo hogan to the dead boy's missing friend, George Bowlegs, to a nearby hippie commune, to an archaeological dig site and finally to a sacred lake that in Zuni tradition is called the Dance Hall of the Dead.

Leaphorn's mission is quite simple: save the Bowlegs boy, who the prejudiced Zuni people assume is the killer in this case. Leaphorn believes that the young Bowlegs boy is innocent and is also in danger of being murdered, just like the boys Zuni friend, Ernesto Cata. Lieutenant Leaphorn has some help in his case from a sympathetic girl from a dodgy commune who had befriended the missing boys. Will Leaphorn be able to solve this case and save a life as well? Or will the killer finally cover the rest of his tracks?