People of Darkness is the first 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...

 novel to feature Officer 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...

. The plot involves a stolen box and an explosion at an oil well. The novel introduces one of Chee's long-running love interests, white schoolteacher Mary Landon. The ambiguous status of peyote usage within both Navajo and European American cultures plays an important role in the plot.