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''A Thief of Time'' is the eighth crime fiction novel Joe Leaphorn / Jim Chee Navajo Tribal Police series by Tony Hillerman, first published in 1988. The story involves the lure of the thousand-year-old Anasazi ruins, a missing anthropologist, a stolen backhoe, people who steal ancient pots on reservation land and human ambition. Chee is pulled into the case by the stolen backhoe, while Leaphorn, now a widow, follows the trail of ancient pots bought and sold. This novel won the Macavity Award for Best Novel in 1989 and was nominated for two others: The Edgar Award and the Anthony Award. It was adapted for television as part of the PBS Mystery! series in 2004. ==Plot summary== Emma had the brain surgery, but she did not survive it. Joe Leaphorn is grief-stricken; he is on his final leave before quitting the Navajo Tribal Police. BLM agent Thatcher takes him along on a call to talk with a woman accused of stealing Anasazi relics from protected land, a thief of time. Her friends at Chaco National Park called her in as a missing person, and think the officers are there to look for her, finally. Dr. Eleanor Friedman-Bernal is an anthropologist interested in ceramics, who thinks she is close to a major new finding, identifying an individual pot maker by the art on the pots. Leaphorn thinks the anonymous call reporting Dr Friedman-Bernal and her disappearance after a planned weekend away will be connected. A piece of digging equipment is stolen from the tribal motor pool. Chee traces the thieves. One is known to Slick Nakai, the preacher. Leaphorn and Chee separately show up at Nakai’s next revival meeting. Leaphorn learns that Nakai sold pots to Eleanor, while Chee learns about the backhoe thief. Leaphorn notices the same Navajo man helping at the revival that he saw working with Maxie Davis at Chaco. Chee seeks the backhoe, finding it with the trailer at the bottom of a canyon. Then he finds two dead men in the moonlight: Joe B. Nails in the truck cab, and Jimmy Etcitty on the ground. Leaphorn visits Maxie and Randall Elliot to gain more information about Eleanor. She took her camping gear; she was likely out checking her latest discoveries. Leaphorn meets Chee at the murder site, where they connect on their two reasons to be there: the missing anthropologist and the missing motor pool equipment. They find no good tracks of the murderer, but Chee counts the bags. Three were removed from the box, yet only two are filled with pots and pieces. The third bag turns up in Elliot’s kitchen trash, filled with Anasazi bones, tagged for one of two important sites. They focus their work on finding the anthropologist. Leaphorn pursues the trail of the pot Houk sold to an auction house after buying it from Jimmy Etcitty. The buyer in New York City has the form showing the exact place the pot was found, so Leaphorn meets Richard DuMont to get that description. The details of the site are correct but the canyon is on Navajo land. Houk is murdered; in his last few minutes alive he writes a note to tell Leaphorn she is alive. Upon his return, Utah State Police relay this to him and Leaphorn explains the search for the missing anthropologist. Slick Nakai’s brother describes the same site to Chee, who then finds the exact locations by tracking where both Elliot and Dr Friedman-Bernal made applications to dig, each for their own research goals. Chee learns that Elliot was not in Washington DC the day Dr Friedman left for her weekend away; instead he rented a helicopter, as he has again done. Chee rents a helicopter and a pilot on the spot. Leaphorn uses Houk’s rubber kayak to find Eleanor. He realizes that Brigham Houk is still alive, living in the wild with the help of food and clothing brought to him each full moon by his father. Soon after finding Many Ruins Canyon, Leaphorn climbs up the rocks and meets Brigham, who has been expecting him. Brigham shows him the wounded Eleanor, pushed down a cliff by the bad man; she is now unconscious and feverish. Brigham agrees to bring her out for medical help. Then Elliot shows up, confessing his actions, including three murders and one attempted. He reported Eleanor for pothunting to free the site for research sooner due to the supposed thieving. He holds Eleanor’s gun to Leaphorn. Quietly, Brigham gets his bow and kills Elliot with an arrow. Within minutes, the helicopter brings Chee. Leaphorn asks Chee what he saw, which included Elliot’s corpse and the glimpse of another man slipping away. Leaphorn says, do not mention any of it, we will talk later. Leaphorn is impressed with Chee's work. Elliot’s body will be found after the animals have gotten to it. Leaphorn will not retire; he must stay around at least until the next full moon to tell Brigham that his father is dead. He asks Chee to arrange a Blessing Way ceremony for him. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「A Thief of Time」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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