Joe Leaphorn is a former, now retired, Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn.  Joes last case went unsolved and the thoughts about it still haunt him. He finds a picture of a rug that seems to be identical to what he felt was a one-of-a-kind rug that had been destroyed by fire in the still unsolved crime he just couldn’t forget. The rug was considered priceless and commemorated a terrible time in the American Indian history. The rug was felt to be cursed. The picture had been brought to Joe’s attention by a man that has now gone missing. It seems like a murderer could still be on the loose.  

Joe’s former colleagues officers Jim Chee and Bernie Manuelito just back from their honeymoon or  else Joe would have asked them right off to get involved but instead sets out to learn what he can about who owns the house and rug in the picture. Another officer is sent to check first and he winds up dead seeming to just run off the road on the way back.

Tony Hillerman doesn’t disappoint us with the twists and turns of this story. The Shape Shifter is Hillerman’s eighteenth crime fiction novel in the Joe Leaphorn & Jim Chee Navajo Tribal Police series, first published in 2006.

Quotes by Tony Hillerman

• “From where we stand the rain seems random. ...

• “Everything is connected. ...

• “IF you are not for yourself, who will be for you? ...

• “Terrible drought, crops dead, sheep dying. ...

• “An author knows his landscape best; he can stand around, smell the wind, get a feel for his place.