In the novel Dance Hall of the Dead, Susanne is a hippie living near the Indian reservation on which the murders happened. As the detective investigates, he interviews Susanne, a woman who knew George, one of the victims. She cooperates with the investigation and attempts to help the police find the missing boy.
Joe, the detective, discerns that Susanne shares a mutual attraction with Ted Isaacs. Isaacs is an anthropologist who works with Professor Reynolds and who is later revealed as the murderer. Susanne expresses a desire for marriage, but she acknowledges that it’s unlikely. While the two are infatuated, he is too busy with work, and when he is finished with his research, he will be too prominent and well-known to care about her.
Dance Hall of the Dead is a 1973 detective novel written by American novelist Tony Hillerman, in which his famed hero, detective Joe Leaphorn, must solve the murder of a young Navajo boy named Ernesto Cata and the mysterious disappearance of his friend George Bowlegs.
Joe's investigation leads him to a Hippie commune named Jason's Fleece (in reference to the myth of the Golden Fleece). This is where we meet Susanne, a young woman who knew George and tries to help with the investigation. Susanne plans to marry Ted Isaacs, a young anthropologist who works with Professor Chester Reynolds (the murderer of the young boys).
We learn of her intentions in a conversation between Joe and Susanne, in which Joe mentions that Ted and Susanne mutually like each other. Joe says, "You like him. He likes you. You could sort of look after one another until I can find George," to which Susanne replies that they can't:
He's got to finish that project and when he does he'll be just about famous, and he'll get a good faculty appointment, and he'll have everything he's never had before. No more being dirt poor and no more being nobody anybody ever heard of.
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