The Blessing Way by Tony Hillerman

When Lt. Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Tribal Police discovers a corpse with a mouthful of sand at a crime scene seemingly without tracks or clues, he is ready to suspect a supernatural killer. Blood on the rocks... A body on the high mesa...Leaphorn must stalk the Wolf-Witch along a chilling trail between mysticism and murder.

Follow Joe Leaphorn and Bergen McKee as they work their way through mystery, death and intrigue. When a wanted man turns up dead with no evidence as to how he died, Leaphorn is disturbed. With more and more reports of a ghost, or a Wolf Man raiding the cattle, rumors begin to fly and the case becomes harder and harder to solve. While Leaphorn is trying to solve that, McKee is trying to unravel the origins of some of the witch stories that have been on the reservation for a while. Needing more case studies, he does his best, but when he is pulled into the middle of the investigation without knowing it, he might just uncover his best lead yet...

This book will not leave you disappointed, and has you hooked from the beginning. It has been described as slow in places, but the webs that are being woven throughout the book deserve a closer look and a chance. I have loved these books for a long time, and being able to sit back and read slowly, I was able to pick up on things that I have missed previously.

Great read! Definitely recommend it as a MUST READ!

With several different story arcs it gets a bit confusing at who is where and when but the author does a good job at the very end refreshing one's memory enough that you see the whole picture. Not sure if the Navaho traditions mentioned are real or not but they do sound intriguing.

I'm partial - I'm from the southwest and I love southwestern literature, and that's why I would give the book 5 stars. Unfortunately, the mystery itself is a little flat, maybe I would give that 3 stars. So I met in the middle with 4. I love this author, I love his characters, and I love the adventures these books take me on. Plus, I get to learn a little Navajo culture in the process.