Dance Hall of the Dead

New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. - A Joan Kahn-Harper Novel of Suspense, 1973. First Edition . Hard Back. Near Fine/Very Good. 5 3/4" x 8 3/4. Burwen, Gail - Jacket Design. 166 Pages. Blue boards with maroon quarter-spine with blue spine lettering. Signed on first title page 'To Bxx & Jxxx Tony Hillerman'. Numbers 77 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 on last page. Bottom front corner lightly bumped. No other defects noted to this tight book with no marks or stamps and faultless interior text. Dust jacket price is unclipped and the number 1073 is at the bottom of front flap. Jacket has some wear at top edge and a faint red stain at inside top of spine area. No other stains noted to jacket or book. Hillerman's third novel, and second mystery featuring Navajo tribal detective Joe Leaphorn. Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Mystery Novel of the Year. Dance Hall of the Dead is what the Zuni Indians call heaven. This novel is set against a Ramah Navajo and Zuni reservation background. The Zunis, the smaller tribe, are surrounded by three Navajo reservations. There is no love lost between the Navajos and the Zunis -- in fact they are very different culturally and, at times they hate each other. It is certainly true that the Navajo policeman Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn didn't really like his Zuni neighbors, and not just because he'd had a Zuni roommate during his freshman year at Arizona State. But when the young Zuni Fire God Ernesto Cata disappeared, Leaphorn, in part because against tradition, Cata's best friend was a Navajo boy, George Bowlegs. The Fire God, who plays an important part in the Zuni religious rituals, not only had disappeared -- it turned out he'd been murdered. And the Navajo boy was missing. Some people thought George Bowlegs had killed his friend. Leaphorn knew he had to stay neutral somehow because he'd have to find out what really happened. His investigations crossed the paths of some local hippies and some local anthropologists -- and the other world, the world of strange religious beliefs, kept coloring the scene. Set against a completely authentic background, filled with mysteries and terrors, this is a story to chill the mind and touch the heart as well. - From the jacket flap.