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meganpbennett's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
People of Darkness is the first book to introduce Jim Chee, who's a very different policeman than Joe Leaphorn. Chee is hired by the wife of a wealthy man to retrieve a box of rocks, and the next day her husband pays him to not find the box of rocks. Interesting.
There are multiple stories running through this mystery, with an explosion in an oil well, several mercury tilt bombs, a dangerous assassin, a higher-than-average rate of cancer, and a man who might not be who he says he is.
This novel is much more tense (the assassin tries to kill Chee several times), but still falls prey to Hillerman's tendency to have his detective figure out the crime and only impart it to the reader later. He also ended this one almost exactly at the conclusion, and so certain plot threads were never fully established or confirmed. Extending the novel by a chapter or two and tying off those would have improved the endings.
There are multiple stories running through this mystery, with an explosion in an oil well, several mercury tilt bombs, a dangerous assassin, a higher-than-average rate of cancer, and a man who might not be who he says he is.
This novel is much more tense (the assassin tries to kill Chee several times), but still falls prey to Hillerman's tendency to have his detective figure out the crime and only impart it to the reader later. He also ended this one almost exactly at the conclusion, and so certain plot threads were never fully established or confirmed. Extending the novel by a chapter or two and tying off those would have improved the endings.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Cancer
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