The Shape Shifter (Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee Series #18)

“With The Shape Shifter, Hillerman once again proves himself the master of Southwest mystery fiction, working in a Hemingway-esque tradition of pared-down writing to bring the rugged Southwest into focus.”—Santa Fe New Mexican

Legendary Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn is drawn back into the past to solve a cold case that has haunted him for nearly a decade in this atmospheric and twisting mystery infused with the Native American culture and lore of the desert Southwest.

Though he’s officially retired from the Navajo Tribal Police, Joe Leaphorn occasionally helps his former colleagues Jim Chee and Bernie Manuelito crack particularly puzzling crimes. 

But there is that rare unsolved investigation that haunts every lawman, including the legendary Leaphorn. Joe still hasn’t let go of his “last case”—a mystery involving a priceless Navajo rug that was supposedly destroyed in a fire. Nine years later, what looks like the same one-of-a-kind rug turns up in a magazine spread, and the man who showed Joe the photo has gone missing.

With Chee and Bernie on their honeymoon, Leaphorn plunges into the case solo, picking up the threads of this crime he’d long thought impossible to solve. Not only has the passage of time obscured the details, but a murderer long thought dead continues to roam free—and is ready to strike again to keep the past buried.