Other editions of book A Thief of Time

At a moonlit Indian ruin—where "thieves of time" ravage sacred ground in the name of profit—a noted anthropologist vanishes while on the verge of making a startling, history-altering discovery. At an ancient burial site, amid stolen goods and desecrated bones, two corpses are discovered, shot by bullets fitting the gun of the missing scientist.There are modern mysteries buried in despoiled ancient places. And as blood flows all too freely, Navajo Tribal Policemen Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee must plunge into the past to unearth an astonishing truth and a cold-hearted killer.

Do the mysteries of an ancient Indian civilization hold the keyto solving the baffling disappearance of a noted anthropologist?Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn teams with Officer Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police to try to find out. But the case turns more and more sinister. And a series of mystifying murders... each more bizarre than the one before it... makes finding the missing Dr. Eleanor Friedman-Bernal... if she is still alive... an urgent race against time.