Tony Hillerman’s mystery, “The Ghostway” is another of his top-notch books featuring his character, Jim Chee. Chee is a Navajo Tribal Policeman working for the Navajo people. As in all of Hillerman’s books about Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, the accurate depiction of Navajo culture and religion are a big part of the story.
In “The Ghostway”, there is a gun fight at the Shiprock Wash-O-Mat between two strangers to the town. One of them, Albert Gorman, ends up dying and the other drives off into the desert areas of the reservation. Old Joseph Joe witnessed everything. The man who left was able to show Old Joseph Joe a photograph of the man he is seeking before he drove away. Jim Chee is on the case. In solving the murder he will follow leads to a ghost trapped in an abandoned Native American Hogan, to an aluminum trailer and to some very unwholesome areas of Los Angeles where a car theft ring is operating.
The mystery involves a runaway teen-age girl, whose grandfather is a murdered man. There is also a hired killer and a person who has been relocated to the Navajo Reservation under the Federal Witness Relocation Program. Part of the story is set in Los Angeles, but Jim Chee returns to the Navajo Nation where the rich Navajo culture enters the story once more. The story escalates with an ancient Navajo healing ceremony where the cure may be death.
Hillerman studied the ancient and contemporary ways of the Navajo and other native tribes of the Four Corners area where most of the story takes place. His attention to detail makes his portrayals of daily life and ceremonies on the reservation authentic. His knowledge of law enforcement pulls this exciting story together.
