Smoke features a Cherokee woodcarver from Oklahoma named Hosea Smoke. He is spending a week at a small college in Oklahoma City, at a Native American art fair, exhibiting his carvings. Among the other exhibitors is a rather obnoxious man named Esau Brown, suspected by many of faking his claims to Indian ancestry. When Smoke and his nephew Mason Littlehorse, a probationary member of the college's security staff, discover the dead body of Esau Brown in his trailer, there are plenty of suspects, including a man who was trying to get him thrown out of the exhibition for being a phony Indian, his ex-wife, and possibly even Justin Hatner, the very rich oilman who had earlier felt defrauded by Brown.

When Hosea finds that Esau Brown had left him a suspicious package in his car just before Esau's death, he finds himself involved in the murder investigation against his better instincts. The situation is further complicated by his desire to help the career of his nephew, and still further complicated by the sudden interest the Hatner family shows in his work. So, with the help of Mason's fellow "token" on the college security force, a Jewish woman named Susan Rifkin, and Hosea's friend and fellow artist Buster Tenbears, he starts to try to track down some of the curious loose ends surrounding the case.

The mystery is solid enough, with a logical but slightly surprising resolution. However, as with all the best mysteries, that's not the main reason to enjoy the book. The story is more than just the solving of the mystery: it's also a story about Hosea's life, and Buster's, and Mason's, and Susan Rifkin's, and the Hatner families: and those stories are all interesting of themselves. The characters are convincing and wholly real, lived-in, not heroes particularly but (mostly) decent people that any of us might know. The writing is engaging: I've said before that Sanders is a raconteur, a natural storyteller, and that proves true here as elsewhere. The book is just enjoyable to read from start to finish. The view of contemporary Indian life from the inside is intriguing, as well. Smoke is a very fine contemporary mystery novel, and I urge you to trot over to Xlibris and give it a try.