Friday, August 15, 2014

Who dies in the novel Dance Hall of the Dead?

Dance Hall of the Dead by Tony Hillerman (May 27, 1925–October 26, 2008) is a detective novel originally published in 1973. It is set on Navajo and Zuni reservations in New Mexico, and the plot of the novel revolves around Native American religion and conflicts between white and Native American cultures in the 1970s.
George Bowlegs is a victim of the murderer. He is a Navajo boy who is fascinated by Zuni spiritual traditions. Shorty Bowlegs, the alcoholic father of George, is also killed by Reynolds. Ernesto Cata, a Zuni boy and friend of George Bowlegs, is also murdered in the novel.
Dr. Chester Reynolds is the archaeologist who has been seeding his dig illegally with artifacts taken from other sites. He is doing this to attain academic stature under false pretenses. He murders the two boys to preserve his secret. Leaphorn identifies him as a murderer. He disappears at the end of the novel, and it is implied that the Zuni tribe has murdered him in revenge for his murder of the boys.


There is more than one death in Tony Hillerman's 1973 novel. The first to die is Ernesto Cata, a Zuni boy who is murdered in an especially gruesome manner: beheading. Later, George Bowlegs, a Navajo boy, and his father, Shorty Bowlegs, are murdered. The killer of all three is Professor Chester Reynolds, an anthropologist leading an archeological dig who has been planting artifacts at the site to defend his anthropological theory and provide cover for narcotics dealing. Ernesto had stolen some artifacts from Reynolds's truck, not realizing that they incriminated the professor, and he passes them on to George Bowlegs.
Ultimately, Professor Reynolds is snatched by three Zuni men who drag him into a secluded area during a sacred Zuni dance ceremony and presumably kill him, as he is never seen or heard from afterward.

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