While the collision of airliners central to the plot of this book was real and triggered the creation of the Federal Aviation Administration and its flight safety rules, the story and all of its characters are purely fictional. However, several of these fictional folks use names borrowed from generous donors to fund to assist children stricken with cancer.

"Retired from the Navajo Tribal Police, Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn is called upon once again to solve a crime. This time it's Joe's last case, a case that remains unsolved and contines to haunt him."--From source other than the Library of Congress

The victim, well dressed but stripped of identification, is found at the edge of the vast Jicarilla Apache natural gas field just inside the jurisdiction of the Navajo Tribal Police, facing Sergeant Jim Chee with a complex puzzle. Why did the Washington office of the FBI snatch custody of this case from its local agents, cover it with secrecy, and call it a hunting accident? What was the victim seeking among the maze of pipelines and pumping stations...

Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Officer Jim Chee combine forces to determine if an attempt on Chee's life is related to three recent murders, each of which shows distinct signs of Navajo witchcraft.

The Navajo Tribal Police investigate the murder of a medicine man. At the crime scene is a partially completed pictograph. One clue sends a chill through a young officer: the arrow used in the killing has a tip of human bone, a sign that a Navajo spirit - a "skinwalker" - is at work.