Tony Hillerman: Author of Navajo Police Mysteries

Joe Leaphorn, the "Legendary Lieutenant" of the Navajo Tribal Police, is close to retirement in the early novels and retired in the later ones. He keeps a large map of the Navajo Reservation on his wall which is studded with color-coded pins locating crime scenes. Although he respects Navajo tradition, he is skeptical of it. He does take seriously reports of witchcraft. He finds that accusations or the practice of witchcraft often covers up more worldly crimes.

Sergeant Jim Chee is much younger than Leaphorn. He is very much a follower of Navajo tradition and religion. In the early novels he hopes to become a shaman. Later he gets involved with a woman who was raised off the Reservation and finds himself torn between the traditional world of the Navajo and her white-culture influences.

Leaphorn and Chee work fairly independently in the early novels as the first three are concerned with Leaphorn's viewpoint and the second three concern Chee's. When they do come together, there's always some uneasiness, some related to their age difference and status within the Navajo Tribal Police, some related to Leaphorn's skepticism of the traditions Chee embraces.