| Characters | |
| Joe Leaphorn (Male) , Private investigator , Widower , Retired , Navajo , Native American , Hired to find a missing biologist who was searching for the key to a plague | |
| Jim Chee (Male) , Police lieutenant , Navajo , Native American , Investigating the murder of a Navajo Tribal Police officer | |
| Genre | |
| Suspense | |
| Mystery | |
| Fiction | |
| Topics | |
| Plagues | |
| Viruses | |
| Navajo Indians | |
| Hopi Indians | |
| Native Americans | |
| Murder investigations | |
| Missing persons | |
| Biologists | |
| Related crimes | |
| Poachers | |
| Setting | |
| - West (U.S.) | |
| - Southwest (U.S.) | |
| Time Period | |
| 1990s -- 20th century | |