A thousand years ago, a people’s blood was shed on this parched earth. Now the dying has begun again. High on a desert ridge, the watcher awaits.

The body in the arroyo belonged to a man who had made his living plundering ancient Indian sites. And the only witness to the crime would not change his story: a demon had killed his friend.

Sheriff Cliff Lansing has an unexplained death on his hands, and it’s only the beginning. In Las Palmas, New Mexico, a US senator is on his way to meet a Zuni shaman who is holding up a land swap involving 150,000 acres in New Mexico and Arizona. Backed by a powerful businessman, the senator intends to push the deal through, but in a long, dark night on the high desert, he is led into a storm of violence and shame.

Now Sheriff Lansing is headed out to the Anasazi Strip, where the truth awaits him—in the swirling dust of magic, greed, and murder.