A Thief of Time

A Thief of Time is the eighth crime fiction novel Joe Leaphorn / Jim Chee Navajo Tribal Police series by Tony Hillerman, first published in 1988. It was adapted for television as part of the PBS Mystery! series in 2004. The story involves the lure of the thousand-year-old Anasazi ruins, a missing anthropologist, a stolen backhoe, people who steal ancient pots on reservation land and human ambition. Chee is pulled into the case by the stolen backhoe, while Leaphorn, now a widower, follows the trail of ancient pots bought and sold. This novel won the Macavity Award for Best Novel in 1989 and was nominated for two others: The Edgar Award and the Anthony Award. Hillerman has set expectations high, as this novel is an award-winner, yet "Slightly less absorbing than the best Hillermans, but darkly atmospheric and ultimately powerful--with (as usual) effective contrasts among the theological beliefs of rationalist Leaphorn, mystical Chee, and other Navajos." is the comment of one reviewer. Another notes that this "novel of mystery rises above its mere classification-mystery- and becomes a fine literary work". In this novel, "it is the sense the author imparts of the sparseness, the spaciousness, the silence, the poverty and the ancient sullen Indian presence in this haunted wild country where the action occurs."