The Shape Shifter

Don’t miss the TV series, Dark Winds, based on the Leaphorn, Chee, & Manuelito novels, now on AMC and AMC+!  

“With The Shape Shifter, Hillerman once again proves himself the master of Southwest mystery fiction, working in a Hemingway-esque tradition of pared-down writing to bring the rugged Southwest into focus.”—Santa Fe New Mexican

Legendary Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn is drawn back into the past to solve a cold case that has haunted him for nearly a decade in this atmospheric and twisting mystery infused with the Native American culture and lore of the desert Southwest.

Though he’s officially retired from the Navajo Tribal Police, Joe Leaphorn occasionally helps his former colleagues Jim Chee and Bernie Manuelito crack particularly puzzling crimes. 

But there is that rare unsolved investigation that haunts every lawman, including the legendary Leaphorn. Joe still hasn’t let go of his “last case”—a mystery involving a priceless Navajo rug that was supposedly destroyed in a fire. Nine years later, what looks like the same one-of-a-kind rug turns up in a magazine spread, and the man who showed Joe the photo has gone missing.

With Chee and Bernie on their honeymoon, Leaphorn plunges into the case solo, picking up the threads of this crime he’d long thought impossible to solve. Not only has the passage of time obscured the details, but a murderer long thought dead continues to roam free—and is ready to strike again to keep the past buried.

Retirement has never sat well with former Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn. Now the ghosts of a still-unsolved case are returning to haunt him, reawakened by a photograph in a magazine spread of a one-of-a-kind Navajo rug, a priceless work of woven art that was supposedly destroyed in a suspicious fire many years earlier. The rug, commemorating one of the darkest and most terrible chapters in American history, was always said to be cursed, and now the friend who brought it to Leaphorn's attention has mysteriously gone missing.

With newly wedded officers Jim Chee and Bernie Manuelito just back from their honeymoon, the legendary ex-lawman is on his own to pick up the threads of a crime he'd once thought impossible to untangle. And they're leading him back into a world of lethal greed, shifting truths, and changing faces, where a cold-blooded killer still resides.

“Nicely colored with background about Native American mythology.” - Entertainment Weekly

“A story that goes far beyond solving a whodunit. Hillerman . . . is deeply taken with the Southwest’s intriguing mix of modern and traditional cultures. The vivid exploration of these interests through the characters and the setting of The Shape Shifter make this another of his books likely to cross over from the mystery genre to find wide general popularity.” - Los Angeles Times

“The Shape Shifter has more to offer than mystery.” - Washington Post

“Lt. Joe Leaphorn is living in the past—and how lucky for readers of his tremendous mysteries about the Navajo tribal police that he is . . . astonishing.” - Chicago Tribune

“Enthralling...Only Hillerman could so masterfully connect such disparate elements as an ancient cursed weaving, two stolen buckets of pinon sap and the Vietnam War. The conclusion is sure to startle longtime fans of this acclaimed mystery series.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“The kind of first-rate thriller and engaging cultural travelogue readers have come to expect from [Hillerman] . . . Along with the cultural and law enforcement smorgasbords, Mr. Hillerman also gives us finely drawn mysteries built around series characters that readers can identify with.” - Washington Times