Hillerman's two main characters are Navajo tribal police officer Jim Chee and his former superior, retired officer Joseph Leaphorn. Chee is intuitive and spiritual; Leaphorn is logical and deductive. Chee plunges into the midst of action and gets hurt a lot. Leaphorn stands back from the fray and gathers information until it coalesces into a meaningful cause-effect pattern. Chee has studied to be a shaman and follows traditional ways as best he can; Leaphorn finds traditional belief in witches and spirits injurious to Navajo development in the modern world and has turned his back on tradition, while remaining deeply Navajo at the same time.

Jim Chee's personal conflicts are summed up in his relationships with an abandoned cat that adopts him, with Officer Bernie Manuelito, with Hosteen Nakai, and with Joseph Leaphorn. The cat had been pampered until abandoned by its white owners but now is forced by...