Hillerman will never win a prize for the excellence of his prose style nor for the originality of his plots, but, like Ole Man River, he just keeps rolling along. His novels featuring the Navajo Indian police team of Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee transcend time and fashion, their fixed-in-amber dependability sending out the same signals of a good read to their millions of fans. In this one, Leaphorn is retired and Chee has been promoted to the position of acting lieutenant in the Navajo Tribal Police. However, when the remains of wealthy rancher Hal Breedlove are discovered after an interval of eleven years, both of them get caught up in the subsequent investigation. Chee, of course, is involved in his official capacity, while Leaphorn is hired as a private investigator by the dead man's family. The result is a nicely complicated, if easily seen-through mystery, with the two old friends bickering and joking their way to a satisfactory solution. As usual, Hillerman throws bits of Indian lore and superstition into his narrative, and the backdrop of the arid New Mexico territory forms a fitting setting for the playing out of the story.