A Thief of Time is the eighth novel by author Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman was an award-winning American author of detective novels and non-fiction works best known for his Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels...

.

The plot involves the Anasazi, a missing archeologist, a stolen backhoe, and people who are termed "pot hunters".

Characters include Joe Leaphorn

Joe Leaphorn

Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn is a fictional character created by American mystery writer Tony Hillerman, one of two officers of the Navajo Tribal Police that feature in a number of novels. The other officer is Jim Chee.- Profile :...

 and Jim Chee

Jim Chee

Jim Chee is one of two Navajo Tribal Police detectives in a series of mystery novels by Tony Hillerman. Unlike his superior Joe Leaphorn, the "Legendary Lieutenant", Chee wants to be a staunch believer in traditional Navajo culture; indeed, he is studying to be a traditional healer at the same...

.

In 2004 it was adapted as a TV film. It starred Adam Beach

Adam Beach

Adam Ruebin Beach is a Canadian Saulteaux actor.He is best known for his roles as Tommy on Walker, Texas Ranger, Kickin' Wing in Joe Dirt, Marine Private First Class Ira Hayes in Flags of Our Fathers, Private Ben Yazzie in Windtalkers, Dr...

 as Chee, Wes Studi

Wes Studi

Wesley "Wes" Studi is a Cherokee actor, who has earned notability for his portrayal of Native Americans in film. He has appeared in well-received Academy Award-winning films, such as Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves, Michael Mann's The Last of the Mohicans, the award-winning Geronimo: An...

 as Leaphorn and Gary Farmer

Gary Farmer

- History :Farmer was born in Ohsweken, Ontario into the Cayuga nation and Wolf Clan of the Haudenosaunee/Iroquois Confederacy. Farmer attended Syracuse University and Ryerson Polytechnic University, where he studied photography and film production....

 as Capt. Largo. It also featured Graham Greene

Graham Greene (actor)

Graham Greene is a Canadian actor who has worked on stage, and in film and TV productions in Canada, England and the United States.-Early life:...

 and Peter Fonda

Peter Fonda

Peter Henry Fonda is an American actor. He is the son of Henry Fonda, brother of Jane Fonda, and father of Bridget and Justin Fonda...

. It aired on PBS

Public Broadcasting Service

The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

's Mystery!

Mystery!

Mystery! is an episodic television series that debuted in 1980 in the USA. It airs on PBS and is produced by WGBH...

series and is available on DVD.

Plot

Ellie Friedman-Bernal (Rosalia de Aragon) is suspected of selling ancient Anasazi pottery on the black market. Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn (Wes Studi) and Officer Jim Chee (Adam Beach) are sent to investigate. Friedman-Bernal's colleagues, Maxie Davis (Dawn Lewis) and Randy Elliott (Lee Tergesen), claim to be clueless about her whereabouts. Hailing from a hard-scrabble farm, Davis is an improbable success at the academic game, while East Coast patrician Elliott is more at home as a scholar.

Friedman-Bernal's cryptic notes lead Leaphorn and Chee to preacher/fence Slick Nakai (Graham Greene) and his musician/accomplice Pete Etcitty (Kenneth White Eagle Wings). Etcitty later turns up dead, along with another pot poacher. Further complicating matters are rich, unsavory collectors Richard DuMont (James Pollard) and local rancher Harrison Houk (Peter Fonda), the last person to see Friedman-Bernal alive.