Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    People of Darkness
    People of Darkness
    People of Darkness
    Audiobook7 hours

    People of Darkness

    Written by Tony Hillerman

    Narrated by George Guidall

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    A dying man is murdered. A rich man's wife agrees to pay three thousand dollars for the return of a stolen box of rocks. A series of odd, inexplicable events is haunting Sergeant Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police and drawing him alone into the Bad Country of the merciless Southwest, where nothing good can survive...including Chee. Because an assassin waits for him there, protecting a thirty-year-old vision that greed has sired and blood has nourished. And only one man will walk away.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateJan 1, 2016
    ISBN9781501907630
    People of Darkness
    Author

    Tony Hillerman

    TONY HILLERMAN served as president of the Mystery Writers of America and received the Edgar and Grand Master Awards. His other honors include the Center for the American Indian’s Ambassador Award, the Spur Award for Best Western Novel, and the Navajo Tribal Council Special Friend of the Dineh Award. A native of Oklahoma, Tony Hillerman lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico, until his death in 2008.

    More audiobooks from Tony Hillerman

    Related to People of Darkness

    Titles in the series (14)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Mystery For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Tony Hillerman's Daughter Anne On Keeping Her Father's Mysteries Alive

      May 29, 2018

      With new focus on a female character, Anne Hillerman is successfully reviving her dad's immensely popular novels.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Quotients

      May 7, 2020

      Quotients
      8 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Sep 1, 2022

      1. Here there’s no rainy season.Sun scalds my forehead,yet the pool is empty. Beside it,a toppled table, its glass surface shattered.The asphalt is too hot for bare feet. 2. Far away: white hillocksand white dunes under a deepblue sky. Swirling winds

      5 min read

    • Article

      Smrtss

      Apr 10, 2024

      In the dim, wet oven of the Huey’s troop compartment, the corporal sat on a flak jacket behind the sweat-stained backs of First Squad. Simms, the big machine gunner for Fire Team 2, leaned back against him, jamming the corporal’s knees right up to hi

      13 min read

    • Article

      79 The Terrible Grinning Men

      Sep 10, 2020

      79 The Terrible Grinning Men
      8 min read

    • Article

      Stranger Places

      Aug 9, 2018

      It began like any normal pregame in the woods. Naked, alone, hungover, a sweaty sleeping bag in the back of a dusty pickup truck, miles from civilization. Predawn in a narrow Utah river bottom, canyon country, early July. A Thermos of lukewarm coffee

      18 min read

    • Article

      Good Dog!

      Sep 1, 2019

      Good Dog!
      8 min read

    • Article

      Fourteen FROM DARK TO LIGHT

      Apr 8, 2020

      Fourteen FROM DARK TO LIGHT
      5 min read

    • Article

      ‘They Put Me On A Ship And Took Me Into The Sun’: The Wild UFO Podcasts Taking Over Our Earphones

      Apr 7, 2023

      In the depths of winter last year, I was running through a cold and unlit field near my house when I saw a trail of lights moving through the sky. I stopped. The air caught in my throat. “Bloody hell,” I thought, “were the UFO people right all along?

      6 min read

    • Article

      Making Sense Of Conspiracy Theorists As The World Gets More Bizarre

      Apr 11, 2021

      In 1999 I sat in a Vancouver café with a group of anti-capitalist activists. They’d just returned from protesting the WTO in Seattle to find a new, far stranger foe in town – David Icke. He was there to lecture about how the ruling elite are actually

      8 min read

    • Article

      Nine Haunting Postapocalyptic Novels

      Feb 3, 2022

      The paradox of imagined apocalypses is that they’re always more about the present than the future. Here's a list of a few haunting and evocative titles. The post Nine Haunting Postapocalyptic Novels appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Vile Piggishness

      Dec 3, 2020

      Vile Piggishness
      10 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Aug 7, 2019

      Book Club
      5 min read

    • Article

      One Word: Avuncular

      Mar 19, 2019

      In our column One Word, writers expound on their favorite words.  Man with beer, artist unknown, c. 1920 My uncle Henry has killed a lot of people. In spite of his dark past, and because of it, he’s my favorite American uncle. Since I cherish bilingu

      3 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Jan 5, 2022

      CONTACT US BY POST: PO BOX 1200, WHITSTABLE CT1 9RH, OR E-MAIL SIEVEKING@FORTEANTIMES.COM PLEASE PROVIDE US WITH YOUR POSTAL ADDRESS I have submitted an account of strange occurrences in my house [‘Hexham fairies’, FT380:76, June 2019] and I read “It

      10 min read

    • Article

      A Visit To The Border

      Nov 19, 2018

      A Visit To The Border
      7 min read

    • Article

      Aughts

      Sep 11, 2017

      Aughts
      23 min read

    • Article

      Reviews

      Oct 25, 2019

      Reviews
      6 min read

    • Article

      It Happened to Me…

      Jun 16, 2022

      A genuine miracle occurred at the art opening of the Blinky 40th Anniversary Exhibition at California State University Northridge Gallery in Southern California on 2 February 2019. An artwork by Erika Ostrander of the “Shroud of Blinky” was found wee

      6 min read

    • Article

      Sleep Nights

      Oct 5, 2021

      Sleep Nights
      18 min read

    • Article

      The Obeah Man’s Son

      May 4, 2021

      The Obeah Man’s Son
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for People of Darkness

    4/5

    358 ratings15 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Usually like Hillerman’s series and have read a few. Somehow this title didn’t deliver what I wanted and I abandoned it about 3/4’s of the way through. Very unusual for me to do this. Don’t know if I’ll continue or not with the series - might give the next one a go.
    • 3/5
      The Navajo aspect was a point of interest, but the mystery to me was just so-so, and I didn't connect with the characters quite as much as I would have liked. Still, I didn't *dislike* them. Most of this particular mystery was about events that took place many years before the book began, and that sort is rarely as engaging for me. I may try another from the series to see if it grabs me more, but at this point I'm not filled with confidence that this series is for me.
    • 4/5
      Jim Chee is a young Navajo, contemplating a law enforcement career with the FBI, when he's hired by a local woman to find an item taken during a burglary. And suddenly he faces pushback, evasions, and bullets. I liked the characters in this mystery, and how the author skillfully interweaves Chee's heritage into the story.
    • 4/5
      People of Darkness is a well written suspenseful story. The adventure begins innocently enough with a Navajo police lieutenant being asked to locate a keepsake box that was stolen from a home safe. People of Darkness explores why a cult of miners all died from cancer and what has this got to do with the keepsake box? The book received four stars in this review for a good story.
    • 4/5
      Acting Sergeant Jim Chee has to decide whether he should join the FBI or be a Hataalii, a traditional healer, while also trying to figure out why someone tries to murder an already dying man. I already like this series, but Chee is my favorite character because he's balancing between the traditional and the modern world, which makes for a great dichotomy and a wonderfully conflicted character. The mystery is really good too and even if parts of it isn't too hard to figure out, there are a couple of aspects that come to unexpected solutions. A great installment in a very entertaining series.
    • 5/5
      Insightful characterization of Navajo culture and the difficulties one of the Navajos has with understanding white culture and criminality. [Spoiler alert]: the plot involves someone assuming a new identity -- adroitly achieved and fit the theme very effectively. However, the paid assassin was a predictable addition and trapped the Navajo officer, Jim Chee, in a rather improbable development. The story was an overall enjoyable read and had the wonderful flavour of the American southwest country.
    • 4/5
      Jim Chee, Navajo policeman assembles three disparate clues into a final ending that blow your sox off. Brilliant police work, exciting characters and a dash of New Mexico Navajo culture tossed in. Engrossing and interesting, well paced. Chee is on the cusp of a life decision, which does not get made in this book...maybe next time?
    • 5/5
      People of Darkness
      Another great read by Hillerman. I know it is from the 1990s, but these stories should be labelled as classics. They are timeless and are always intriguing, enjoyable in a gentle way. People of Darkness has Jimmy Chee following clues about a private case he has been offered, but no one seems to want him to take it. In the end, he becomes involved even though it was not on his agenda. Another well written mystery that hooks the reader and takes them into the world of Native American history and rituals.
    • 4/5
      Hillerman’s mysteries are kept from being run of the mill by the intersection of white and Navajo culture. Since they’re set on Navajo land which has sketchy boundaries at best, there’s always jurisdictional issues. FBI or Navajo Police? Sheriff or BIA? Some combination of that or someone else? In Hillerman’s books, FBI almost always thinks it’s their jurisdiction.What I’m most appreciative of are the descriptions of manners and customs. One does not drive up to someone’s home and knock on the door. One parks 30 feet away and waits for someone to come to the door and invite you in.Navajo religion plays a big part in these books as well. Navajos seek harmony and believe that a person’s illness is caused by being out of harmony. A healer determines which ceremonies must be performed in order to bring the person back into harmony. Cancer isn’t a disease of uranium poisoning through mole fetishes, it’s being out of harmony. It’s Chee’s understanding of this concept and his training to be a singer which helps him understand how the pieces fit together.Tony Hillerman’s mysteries are not deep, most books run right around 200 – 300 pages. They’re a fun way to pass an evening, and some days that’s all anyone can want.
    • 5/5
      People of Darkness by Tony Hillerman is the fourth of the Navajo mysteries and the introduction of Jim Chee. Chee is hired as a private consultant to figure out who stole the apparently worthless rocks left in a wealthy man's box. Meanwhile, Leaphorn is curious about an old mining disaster that now seems to be connected with a spate of cancer deaths. In the middle of all of this, there's a man driven mad by his desire for revenge.Hillerman's mysteries seem to bring together the old and the new, especially after the introduction of Jim Chee. As the younger of the two he gets the active cases — though usually as an officer of the Navajo Police. Joe Leaphorn, gets the gossip and cold cases and through patience, and the willingness to sit through many a long story, is able to see how the gossip fits together and (often) relates to the modern day case at hand.People of Darkness was one of those rare Hillerman books where I was on the same page with Leaphorn. Usually I'm more of a Jim Chee person and I fail to see the big picture as it is unfolding before me. This time, though, I began to see how everything fit together in one of Leaphorn's earliest meetings to hear about the mining disaster and the belief that witchcraft was behind the cancer taking the survivors one by one.Even though I saw how it fit all together, I still enjoyed the mystery. I listened to it on audio, performed by George Guidall. He has the perfect voice for these books.
    • 4/5
      Tony Hillerman introduces us to Jim Chee in this episode of his marvelous series of Navajo police. Chee is facing a big decision, should he join the FBI (he has passed the tests and been asked to go to Quantico), or should he remain in New Mexico as a policeman, while staying to continue learning to be a singer?

      While he is debating this decision he is drawn into a case of simple burglary that just continues to grow and expand, including oil rig explosions, dead bodies disappearing and suddenly being stalked by a killer.

      Chee isn't alone in his quest, Mary Landon has managed to get involved in the mystery and Chee has to keep her alive along with keeping himself from harm.

      I enjoyed meeting Chee and Mary, it will be interesting to move forward in this series to when Chee starts working with Leaphorn.
    • 3/5
      Love the insights into the Navajo culture and reservation life, but the plot is pretty obvious and the relies on that hoariest of adventure/mystery cliches, the paid assassin. If there were really as many professional, paid killer as mystery writers would have us believe, there would be no mothers-in-law, divorce lawyers, or gym teachers left alive in the world.
    • 3/5
      One of the odder murder weapons I've come across--extremely spooky hitman after Jim Chee and his girlfriend
    • 3/5
      This is the type of book series where I keep getting the plots confused. I'd already read this one, but when I picked it up I wasn't sure which one of the books I'd already read this one would turn out to be.Not bad. As usual, there's some good information about the Navajo. But this one was published in 1980- this is One Long Mystery Series.
    • 4/5
      I'm looking back in a journal from 2005, when I read this. All I wrote is: Very good, as usual. Sorry. I always enjoy Hillerman's works and I don't think anyone could go wrong reading any of them.