Vibrant with the spirit of the Navajo people of the Southwest, Hillerman's new story is a spellbinder, like his Edgar Winner Dance Hall of the Dead and other praised novels. Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee of the tribal police work together here, trying to solve crimes that resist logic. There are no clues to three homicides or to the attempted murder of Chee. Leaphorn thinks a "skinwalker," or witch, could have attacked the victims, all adherents of shamanism, as they are otherwise unrelated. The skinwalkers represent a schism between witchcraft and the traditional Navajo Way. A second attempt on Chee bolsters Leaphorn's suspicion since Chee is an aspiring shaman.
Samael Aun Weor, founder of the International Gnostic Movement and author of sixty books, lived for many years in close contact with the mysterious natives of the Sierra Nevada of South America. He and his wife Litelantes compiled and verified the knowledge they had been given by the Priests and Doctors of that region, and supplemented it with their own Initiatic wisdom, resulting in this book Occult Medicine and Practical Magic.
