13 The First Eagle – Tony Hillerman

When acting Lt. Jim Chee caught a Hopi eagle poacher red-handed and huddled over the body of a Navajo Tribal Police officer, he had an open-and-shut case — at least until retired Navajo Tribal Police officer Joe Leaphorn showed up. Leaphorn was hired to find a biologist who disappeared from the same area on the same day the cop was murdered. To solve this one, Leaphorn and Chee must penetrate a web of scientists hunting the key to the most virulent form of bubonic plague since the Middle Ages.