FINAL BOOK BLOG

" I heard one of the boys stole an arrowhead," Leaphorn said. " Was anything missing from the box?"
Reynolds laugh was more of a snort. " You can be damned sure there wasn't. that box had stuff in it from all eight of the digs I'm watching. Nothing very important, but stuff we were working on. If a single flake was taken out of there, I'd know it. Its all there." He frowned. " Who told you he'd stolen some artifacts?"
"It's thirdhand," Leaphorn said. " The Navajo boy has a little brother. He told me."
"Thats funny," Reynolds said.
Leaphorn said nothing. But he thought, Yes, that's very funny.- Page 49

This passage is from chapter four when Detective Joe Leaphorn is investigating the disappearance of the two boys by interviewing two archaeologists at a local dig site where the boys had reportedly stolen artifacts. This was the first time that Dr. Reynolds shows up in the book and turns out to be very important as he ends up being the killer. It is important because the whole murder was over stolen artifacts that Reynolds was illegal planting at the site so that he could take credit for finding them when they had already been found at another site. In this passage, he lies about there being no missing artifacts. Later in the book it is proven that there were indeed artifacts missing from his collection.

" When Reynolds chased Cata away from the truck he must have checked right away and found some of his stuff was gone." Leaphorn fished the unbroken point from his pocket and handed it to Isaacs. " This had been taken, too, and probably other material.It was bad enough Cata having it. But when he got it was fatal.What if he got a guilty conscience and brought it back and gave it to you?You'd ask where he got it and when, and then you'd have known Reynolds was putting the stuff in the ground for you to find. Or if the site got to be famous-and Reynolds knew that would happen- then Cata was sure to talk."
"So he went out to kill Cata," Isaacs said. " Well that makes sense."- Page 238

Reynolds is found out to be the killer, and the reasoning is given as well. Reynolds was so driven for fame that he would kill for it, and he did. I thought Dance Hall of the Dead was an interesting book because it dealt with a culture with which I wasn't familiar and I couldn't put it down. I thought it was interwoven very nicely just like a good novel should be, because everything in the beginning came back around to have meaning in the end. I was satisfied with the ending, even though in some ways I predicted it, I still think it ended the way that best fit the rest of the story.