Point of View

The point of view of this novel is third person omniscient. The narrator is Jim Chee through the majority of the chapters, but the killer, Colton Wolf, does narrate a few of the chapters as well. Jim Chee is a tribal police officer who works on the Big Reservation in an area known as the checkerboard reservation. Chee becomes involved in a case that is connected to a decades old explosion at an oil well near where Chee lives. This case causes Chee to accidentally witness a murder, causing the killer to come after him. As Chee shares his thoughts and feelings with the reader as he investigates the case, the killer also shares his thoughts and motives.

The point of view of this novel allows the reader to develop a relationship with Jim Chee, the main character of the novel. Chee is a tribal policeman...