Listening Woman

Summary

Edgar Award winner Tony Hillerman takes some tantalizing leads and mixes in authentic Indian lore and suspense to create a real cliffhanger of a mystery.

Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn’s homicide case has an eyewitness, of sorts: a blind lady named “Listening Woman.” She has been diagnosing a sick old man who won’t confide in her. She has been listening to the earth, and it tells her the old man needs to receive the Mountain Way Chant and the Black Rain Ceremony to cure him of his problems.

But before Listening Woman can communicate her diagnosis, someone murders the old Navajo, bludgeoning him to death with a pistol. For good measure, the murderer also kills Listening Woman’s niece.

In addition to the grisly double murder, Lieutenant Leaphorn and the Navajo Tribal Police have their hands full with a hit-and-run attempt, a baffling bank robbery, a missing helicopter, and a militant American Indian terrorist group called the Buffalo Society.