A Thief of Time
Tony Hillerman
 Ellie Friedman-Bernal is suspected of selling ancient Anasazi pottery on the black market. Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Officer Jim Chee are sent to investigate. Friedman-Bernal's colleagues, Maxie Davis and Randy Elliott, claim to be clueless about her whereabouts. Hailing from a hard-scrabble farm, Davis is an improbable success at the academic game, while East Coast patrician Elliott is more at home as a scholar. Friedman-Bernal's cryptic notes lead Leaphorn and Chee to preacher/fence Slick Nakai and his musician/accomplice Pete Etcitty. Etcitty later turns up dead, along with another pot poacher. Further complicating matters are rich, unsavory collectors Richard DuMont and local rancher Harrison Houk, the last person to see Friedman-Bernal alive.