Rating: 
Summary: A best selling Navajo detective story
Review: "A Thief of Time" is the eighth book in Tony Hillerman's Navajo detective series, but the first one to make national best seller lists and propel him into bigtime literary stardom. "Thief" is one of Hillerman's least mysterious mysteries, but one of his most interesting books. He tells of the Anasazi, the ancient ones, an amazing proto-civilization of a thousand years ago that left ruins and potsherds scattered all over the austere, forbidding desert country of the Four Corners area. The mystery deals with ancient pots, the "thieves of time" who dig up graves and sell the pots they find, and of ambitious archaelogists who strive to make their reputations by discovering the secrets of the Anasazi. Navajo detectives Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee confront several mysteries: a missing archaeologist, a stolen backhoe, and the bodies of two pot thieves. For Leaphorn, the solution to the mystery goes back twenty years into his past to a canyon along the San Juan River in Utah. Atmosphere is what Hillerman sells in his books and this one has it in abundance. Navajo culture and ceremonies, modern police work, and the treasures of the Anasazi are woven together into a landscape of pure, clean-aired natural beauty. The weather -- thunderstorms, droughts, sudden blizzards, the thunderheads of approaching doom -- is also prominent in Hillerman's novels. His books combine elements of mysteries, westerns, and exotic culture -- and they are really, really worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Hillerman's best
Review: "A Thief of Time" is not just a good mystery (and it's a very good one), it's a fine novel. The integration of the Chee and Leaphorn story lines is about as masterful as tying story lines together gets. The Anasazi history is an added bonus.
Rating:
Summary: A best selling Navajo detective story
Review: "A Thief of Time" is the eighth book in Tony Hillerman's Navajo detective series, but the first one to make national best seller lists and propel him into bigtime literary stardom. "Thief" is one of Hillerman's least mysterious mysteries, but one of his most interesting books. He tells of the Anasazi, the ancient ones, an amazing proto-civilization of a thousand years ago that left ruins and potsherds scattered all over the austere, forbidding desert country of the Four Corners area. The mystery deals with ancient pots, the "thieves of time" who dig up graves and sell the pots they find, and of ambitious archaelogists who strive to make their reputations by discovering the secrets of the Anasazi. Navajo detectives Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee confront several mysteries: a missing archaeologist, a stolen backhoe, and the bodies of two pot thieves. For Leaphorn, the solution to the mystery goes back twenty years into his past to a canyon along the San Juan River in Utah. Atmosphere is what Hillerman sells in his books and this one has it in abundance. Navajo culture and ceremonies, modern police work, and the treasures of the Anasazi are woven together into a landscape of pure, clean-aired natural beauty. The weather -- thunderstorms, droughts, sudden blizzards, the thunderheads of approaching doom -- is also prominent in Hillerman's novels. His books combine elements of mysteries, westerns, and exotic culture -- and they are really, really worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: A best selling Navajo detective story
Review: "A Thief of Time" is the eighth book in Tony Hillerman's Navajo detective series, but the first one to make national best seller lists and propel him into bigtime literary stardom. "Thief" is one of Hillerman's least mysterious mysteries, but one of his most interesting books. He tells of the Anasazi, the ancient ones, an amazing proto-civilization of a thousand years ago that left ruins and potsherds scattered all over the austere, forbidding desert country of the Four Corners area. The mystery deals with ancient pots, the "thieves of time" who dig up graves and sell the pots they find, and of ambitious archaelogists who strive to make their reputations by discovering the secrets of the Anasazi. Navajo detectives Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee confront several mysteries: a missing archaeologist, a stolen backhoe, and the bodies of two pot thieves. For Leaphorn, the solution to the mystery goes back twenty years into his past to a canyon along the San Juan River in Utah. Atmosphere is what Hillerman sells in his books and this one has it in abundance. Navajo culture and ceremonies, modern police work, and the treasures of the Anasazi are woven together into a landscape of pure, clean-aired natural beauty. The weather -- thunderstorms, droughts, sudden blizzards, the thunderheads of approaching doom -- is also prominent in Hillerman's novels. His books combine elements of mysteries, westerns, and exotic culture -- and they are really, really worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Discovering a New Friend
Review: "A Thief of Time" was my first introduction to the writing talent of Tony Hillerman. He is a master at interweaving past and present in a captivating story. Reading a Hillerman novel familiarizes readers with the Four Corners area of the southwest and introduces them to "The People." Hillerman's respect for the Navajho and their way of life shines through this well plotted novel. One reading of "A Thief of Time" convinced me to add Mr. Hillerman to my list of favorite authors and I eagerly await each new offering.
Beverly J Scott author of Righteous Revenge
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not Hillerman's Best (spoilers)
Review:
Blarg. I wrote my "Thief of Time" review under "Sacred Clowns" forgetting which book I was reviewing. So I'll keep this short. Thief of Time is often considered Hillerman's finest work in his Southwestern Mysteries, but I found it less satisfying than "Blessing Way" and "Sacred Clowns." In brief, Hillerman seemed to lose control of the book about halfway through and fell victim to the lazy writer's prop of killing a character to inject drama into the story. There were just too many deaths in this one and it contributed to a general lack of focus in the later chapters. And, as usual, I cared a great deal less about the Crime and the Criminals than Leaphorn and Chee. Hillerman's crooks and murderers just aren't fleshed out very well. The motivation in this case was an excellent one--but far too psychologically deep to hang on such a paper-thin character. So there. I love reading Hillerman as much as the next man, but I'm not blind to his faults, the most prominent of which is on glaring display here--he has trouble with the resolutions to his stories, creating a deep, layered mystery, and then wrapping it up in an action movie style that just doesn't fit the earlier parts of his book. RstJ
Rating:
Summary: The best book in the series
Review: Although my personal favorite is *Coyote Waits,* for the quiet, tragic dignity of the conclusion, this is definitely the strongest and most representative title in Hillerman's superb "Navajo mysteries." All the elements come together here. Hillerman's intimate knowledge of the geography, politics, and events of the area, his informed respect for the Navajo people, a complex plot that begins with what appears to be a supernatural event and weaves us through a maze of crimes, lies, and deceptions before we see "what really happened." This is the high point of the series, with both veteran Joe Leaphorn and impulsive Jim Chee on the scene. If you don't like *A Thief of Time*, chances are Hillerman is not for you.
Rating:
Summary: criminal cases
Review: Book Review Have you ever watched Cops or America's Most Wanted? Well, Tony Hillerman calls the book that I am about to tell you about A Thief Of Time. This book is interesting because it was about police stories and how criminals always seem to get away from the cops every time they seem to commit a crime. If you like police stories, then you will absolutely love this book. It is about police stories that happened a long time ago. It is about how they steal precious pottery and priceless jewelry. The thief is too quick however; the police are just too slow to catch them. It was in a second persons point of view. "Now she picked it up, put an arm through the carry strap, changed her mind. She unzipped the side pocket and extracted the pistol. It was a .25 caliber automatic." Leaphorn was a dynamic character because he changed throughout the entire book.
Rating: 
Summary: Ordinary plot in a fine backdrop; fair read
Review: Brilliantly constructed backdrop, Hillerman excels in describing the land and the culture of the Navajo Indians. The characters of the story are realistic, albeit not remarkably intricate or intriguing; anthropology students, traders of Indian artifacts, preachers and of course, Navajo policemen. The mystery itself is at best mediocre.
Rating:
Summary: I love this Hillerman guy
Review: Did you know you can take a topographical map of the Four Corners area and track every arroyo, every butte, every mesa and canyon and rio seco mentioned in Hillerman's books? They're all there. Just get yourself a 4-wheel drive vehicle and go off road and have an adventure as you read each of his mystery tales. Right where he says the truck in his book went left into what looks like an untracked wilderness down a barely-visible double track leading to god knows where, sure enough, there those faint tracks in the dust appear.
Set against the backdrop of the long-vanished Anasazi, Hillerman weaves a complex tale setting Anglo culture against the values of the Dinai, the Navajo tribal people. Elderly Joe Leaphorn and brash newcomer Jim Chee (with one foot in the spirituality of the Navajo healers and the other in the Western world) combine forces to solve the mystery surrounding the disappearance of an anthropologist.
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