The backdrop of the book starts with the Federal government giving some Navajo land to the Hopis and forcing some 9,000 Navajos off their land. The Navajos had been hauling water in this arid stretch by hand. After the government took this piece of land from the Navajos, they constructed eight windmills to pump water for its new inhabitants. Someone is none too happy about that. Someone is vandalizing one, and only one of the eight windmills repeatedly. Jim Chee, newly assigned to this district and not quite accepted by the locals and unsure of his new captain's opinion of him yet, is assigned three cases: 1) stop and catch who is vandalizing the windmill 2) Catch the burglar of the Burnt Springs Trading Post 3) Identify a John Doe murder victim that appears to have been ritually mutilated. While staking out the windmill late at night, a plane crashes and its pilot is killed, and its passenger shot to death. Apparently this is part of a drug-running operation and Jim Chee is now suspected by the FBI and DEA as being a "dirty" cop and mixed up in the drug mess. Drugs and murder are under the FBI's jurisdiction, and with Jim Chee being suspect, he is not allowed to get involved. But, the three cases Chee has been assigned to solve are all linked to the dope/murders. And we know Chee. We know Chee can't quite leave it alone. Two DEA agents break into his house, beat him up, handcuff him, and one of them sticks a pistol to his forehead and threatens to kill him if he doesn't come up with the dope. Chee files a report with CPT Largo, who orders him on vacation and tells him to leave town. Alas, Chee cannot. He has learned enough about the mysteries of these cases so that he can't let go. I won't spoil the ending but will say that Chee proves himself more Navajo than lawman at the end.This is a very complex plot and has many layers. I did not figure out who did it and why until Chee revealed it. This book was rich in the religious culture of the Hopis, a thread woven into a very complex plot. I was very disappointed that Leaphorn was not so much as even mentioned once, which I felt was unusual, given their close association. Nothing like, what would Leaphorn do, or drop by Leaphorn's for a consult, or maybe one thing Chee learned from Leaphorn: nothing-nada. Leaphorn is present in "The People of Darkness" and then "The Ghostway", but seems missing here. Also with Chee's inner conflicts over his love interest with Mary London, there was nothing about any of this coloring his moods or interactions. Both the latter two reasons were why I only rated this 4/5 stars.
#5 in the Navajo mysteries, this one featuring only Sgt. Jim Chee, who works for the Navajo Tribal Police. Chee is out on a stakeout, watching a new windmill that has twice been vandalized to try to catch the culprit in the act, when he witnesses a plane crash not far away. It's a small plane, and very shortly after he arrives on the scene, the pilot dies. While he's briefly inspecting the site, he hears a gunshot not far off, and then a car driving away. The plane ends up being part of a smuggling ring, carting loads of drugs into the country under cover of darkness, and an arrogant, annoying DEA officer gets involved, as well as the FBI. Chee is supposed to just drop that case and concentrate on finding the windmill vandals, and then a body appears on the scene, obviously dead for quite some time. Of course the cases all eventually tie together as Chee bends and twists the rules and follows the clues while disobeying orders to find the solution.Atmospheric and educational, mystical and steeped in Navajo and Hopi tradition, this series is wonderfully read by George Guidall, whom I would happily listen to reciting the phone book. LOL Anyway, this was another enjoyable entry in the series, although I do like the books that have both Leaphorn and Chee in them a little better.
What do You think about The Dark Wind (1990)?
Hillerman's main character in this murder mystery is Detective Jim Chee of the Navajo Police. A plane crash and suspected drug running play into what Chee discovers was a murder. Chee is assigned to investigate the vandalism of windmills on the reservation, and winds up finding the keys to the murder-drug mystery.Hillerman's stories are always meaty, thoughtful and challenging. The scenarios are believable and the characters well-rounded.I love the views expressed by Hillerman's Indian characters about the government agencies. They make fun of the inefficiency and incompetence of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the FBI involved in this case come in for dismissive evaluation as ignorant and disdainful of Native authority. This always adds a dimension of personality and character interaction.The cooperative aspect of local and national sources adds interest and vigor to the solution of the mystery. The Navajo nation law enforcement relates directly to the Federal authorities, not the state authorities.In this story Chee works with a Hopi officer and the local people to solve the multifaceted mystery behind the scenes. Chee himself is harassed, roughed up and threatened by the clueless Feds as a suspect in the disappearance of the drugs they expected to find in the plane.
—Orville Jenkins
The Dark Wind is an early Jim Chee book with no mention of Chee's colleague Joe Leaphorn. The story begins when Chee hears a plane crash in the wee hours of the morning, and discovers it was no accident. He's wondering if the crash of what was apparently a smuggler's plane and subsequent murders tie in with a couple of other cases he's working on. This story involves Hopi territory, where Chee, as a Navajo policeman, is having to feel his way. I think The Dark Wind is one of Hillerman's best-plotted books. There are a couple of very interesting moments when Jim Chee ponders the differences in motivation between Navajo and "belagana" or white man. I wonder if any Navajos have ever written about Hillerman's take on their culture, how accurate it is....
—Lillian Carl
quote from pages 147 - 148 "There was no reason to kill him," she said. "And whoever did it is going to suffer for it.".... "They won't get away with it. You understand that?" "Not exactly," Chee said. "Do you understand 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth'?" "I've heard it," Chee said. "Don't you believe in justice? Don't you believe that things need to be evened up?" Chee shrugged. "Why not?" he said. As a matter of fact, the concept seemed as strange to him as the idea that someone with money would steal had seemed to Mrs. Musket. Someone who violated basic rules of behavior and harmed you was, by Navajo definition, "out of control." The "dark wind" had entered him and destroyed his judgement. One avoided such persons, and worried about them, and was pleased if they were cured of this temporary insanity and returned again to hozro. But to Chee's Navajo mine, the idea of punishing them would be as insane as the original act. He understood it was a common attitude the the white culture, but he'd never before encountered it so directly.
—Carol
