The Blessing Way by Tony Hillerman, 1970

Tony Hillerman grew raised in Oklahoma, served in WWII, returned to Oklahoma to finish university, and then began a career in media. He worked his way up through the journalistic ranks before becoming the Bureau Chief for United Press International in New Mexico. He came to appreciate the location and the culture as he continued to live and work in New Mexico. Then he began writing books. The Blessing Way was Tony Hillerman's first of 18 books in the Detective Joe Leaphorn series. Detective Jim Chee is introduced later in the series.

The rest of the series, including The Blessing Way, would be classified as police procedurals. The difference between these stories is that the police procedural takes place in the wide American Southwest—specifically, on the Navajo reservation—rather than in an urban environment. Hillerman's writings are significant because he was the one who introduced the stories and culture of the indigenous peoples of the American Southwest to mainstream fiction at a period when it was not widely accepted. Although all of the novels are about the Navajo in some form, Hillerman also discusses the Zuni, Hopi, and Pueblo people (also referred to as Anasazi, which is no longer politically correct).

Link to buy: www.amazon.com/dp/0062821660?tag=upjourney-20