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A Thief of Time
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Plot Summary of A Thief of Time
"This is probably one of the most suspenseful of the Chee/Leaphorn mysteries. In it we encounter a melancholy and downbeat Joe Leaphorn who, after the sad death of his wife Emma, decides to retire from his job with the Navajo Tribal Police. But then a young anthropologist specializing in ancient Anasazi pottery goes missing, and Leaphorn decides that he must solve the case because Emma would have wanted him to.

When several murders are committed all involving illegal grave-digging at the sites of the Anasazi ruins, the case becomes more complicated, and Leaphorn teams up with Officer Jim Chee. At least one of the murders was committed with the missing anthropologist's gun. Is she a killer who just faked her own disappearance? If so, what was her motive? The investigation leads Leaphorn into his past as a young police officer when an old acquaintance is murdered whose mentally ill son's life he had once saved.

"

Dorothea Lotter, Resident Scholar

Review Analysis of A Thief of Time
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 10%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 30%




Tone of story - very upbeat
How difficult to spot villain? - Challenging
Time/era of story: - 1980's-1999
What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot? - 60%
Special suspect? - chronically deranged person
Murder of certain profession? - criminals
Misc. Murder Plotlets - "All in the family" murder - Proving innocence of very obvious suspect
Kind of investigator - American Indian mystery
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Crime Thriller Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown) Yes

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status: - police/lawman
Age: - 40's-50's
How much violence does he/she use? - none
Ethnicity/Race - White/American
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Very much smarter than other characters
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - scholar
Eccentric: Yes - obsessed
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a little/some
Motive of antagonist - money/treasure
How sensitive is this character? - mean, arrogant
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Setting
United States Yes
The US: - West

Style
Part of a series? Yes
Person - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
How many deaths? - 3-4
Amount of dialog - significantly more descript than dialog
Most similar books to A Thief of Time
The Ghost Walker by Margaret Coel
A Walk Among the Tombstones by Lawrence Block
Cold Day In Paradise by Steve Hamilton
Dead Birds Don't Sing by Brenda M. Boldin
All Fall Down by Erica Spindler


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Tony Hillerman Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
Dorothea Lotter  

SCHOLARS:
David Gordon  Tena van't Foort  BethG  Chuck Nugent  Di Bingham  Jacky  


Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
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