If you assume bubonic plague disappeared with crumbling castles and dehydrating moats, think again. The bacteria responsible for the ""Black Death" are alive and well in the American Southwest. Lying on a gurney in a hospital in Flagstaff, Arizona, a recent plague victim bears silent witness to the virulence of the latest reincarnation of this age-old killer.

In a seemingly unrelated incident on the Navajo reservation, Jim Chee is called from his Tuba City office to assist a young Navajo officer, Ben Kinsman. By the time Chee reaches the remote spot, he finds Kinsman dead, his skull crushed by a rock, and nearby a young Hopi, Robert Jano, and a captured eagle. To Chee, Jano's past history of poaching eagles and having been arrested by Kinsman provide a motive for murder – revenge. That motive, combined with well-known friction between the Hopi and the Navajo leads Chee to arrest Jano for Kinsman's murder.

Enter Mr. Joe Leaphorn now retired but working occasionally as a private investigator. He is hired by an elderly woman to search for her missing niece. Before long Leaphorn and Chee are interacting regularly, and, though pursuing separate threads, carefully weaving a solution to a puzzle which will keep readers guessing who-done-it for most of this all too brief tale.

The relationship between Joe Leaphorn and Acting Lieutenant Jim Chee, a "traditional" Navajo, illustrates important differences among the Navajo people. Through these two very different men, Hillerman is able to convey schism and complementarity. Chee's long-time ambition is to become a shaman, following in the footsteps of his beloved uncle, Hosteen Nakai. There is tension between his love and respect for the traditions of his people and his need to adopt more acceptable institutional behaviors in order to move beyond status of "Acting" Lieutenant. Joe Leaphorn is more removed from tradition. The sensitivity and dynamic between the two men is an outstanding feature of this novel.

They are supported by a cast of artfully drawn secondary characters. John McGinnis, the tough old trader at Short Mountain Trading Post, whose information for Leaphorn is delivered more as gossip than fact, has a soft heart shining through his curmudgeon façade. Janet Pete, Chee's sometime fiancée, returns from DC, becoming public defender for Jano. A more interesting relationship develops between Leaphorn and his companionable sleuth, Louisa Bourebonette, a professor of mythology at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. Louisa is an intelligent woman Hillerman should be proud of having created.

Perhaps a mystery or police procedural is not supposed to make the reader emotional. If so, someone has forgotten to tell Tony Hillerman. This book includes one of the best tongue-in-cheek renderings of cops versus politicos written in recent years. I laughed. There is also a beautiful scene between Chee and his dying uncle, Hosteen Naka. I cried.

The story flows smoothly; while Hillerman's language is spare, he is no Hemingway clone. Tony Hillerman's prose sings. You "hear" Joe Leaphorn thinking; you "feel" Jim Chee speaking. Furthermore, though there is evidence of violence, this book is not loaded with blood and gore. Experiencing crime through Tony Hillerman's eyes is more akin to sitting around a cracker barrel in the little store in Window Rock, hearing the gossip mixed with the news, all with appropriate pauses and thoughtful silences.

A reader need not have read Hillerman's earlier works of fiction to enjoy reading this book. The author weaves relevant information from prior books without disrupting the storyline. However, if you prefer avoiding the hefty price of a hardback, read Skinwalkers, a 1986 novel which first introduced Officer Jim Chee, or The Fallen Man, now available in paperback. Then, beg, borrow, or take my advice and break down and buy The First Eagle.

--Sue Klock