A review by judyward
The Ghostway by Tony Hillerman

4.0

This book, published in 1984, takes readers into Navajo country where Hosteen Joseph Joe, an elderly Navajo man, sees Albert Gorman, a Navajo who lives in Los Angeles, shoot a man in the Wash-O-Mat and then drive away although he also was seriously wounded. Jim Chee, an officer with the Navajo Tribal Police, is asked by the FBI to help find Gorman. Before this case is solved Jim Chee will travel to Los Angeles and, as usual, find himself torn between the traditional culture of the Navajo people and the beckoning white world. Chee is studying to become a yata'ali, or Navajo healer/shaman, but his girlfriend, Mary Landon, is trying to convince him to apply for a job with either the FBI or the Bureau of Indian Affairs and relocate to Washington, D.C. I was particularly interested in the information presented in this book about Navajo culture and religious traditions, especially the rituals involved with preparing a person for death and preparing a body for burial. Hillerman also describes in detail the ritual of the Ghostway, which is a ceremony to cleanse an individual who has come into contact with a malevolent ghost. Tony Hillerman's respect for traditional Navajo culture shines through this book and makes readers eager to learn more about the challenges of reconciling traditional Navajo culture with the intrusions of the modern world.