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People of Darkness (Jim Chee Novels) 15 reviews
Tony Hillerman
HarperTorch, 1991
Skinwalkers, Navajo Wolves and Witches
In "People of Darkness", Navajo tribal police Sargent Jim Chee stumbles onto a mystery and unravels multiple crimes after being asked to find a keepsake box belonging to a wealthy man outside of Chee's jurisdiction. The wealthy man's second wife specifically requested Chee as investigator because Jim Chee is considered an authority on his Indian tribe's religion, studying to be a "yataalii" (a ...
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The First Eagle (Jim Chee Novels) 87 reviews
Tony Hillerman
HarperTorch, 1999
a murderer caught red-handed, or was Chee wrong?
Acting Lt Jim Chee is finds a Hopi indian with blood on his hands and a dead policeman, and naturally assumes the Hopi had just killed him. This particular indian even has a motive! But all is not what it seems, as the legendary retired Lt Joe Leaphorn gets involved as a result of being hired to find a missing lady who was hunting for clues about the bubonic plague, fleas and prairie dogs. ...
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The Shape Shifter111 reviews
Tony Hillerman
Harper, 2008
Among his best!
I am a long time Hillerman fan, and expected not to like this book based on the recent reviews. Thank goodness I was pleasantly surprised to find that I liked it very much, and even thought it was among his best! I agree with others that the structure of the plot, with a flashback being the main story, doesn't seem to work too well. I found myself forgetting that it was a flashback as the ...
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The Dark Wind (Jim Chee Novels)18 reviews
Tony Hillerman
HarperTorch, 1990
NOW, THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!
Recently I read THE SHAPE SHIFTER by Tony Hillerman and was disappointed by the overall shoddiness of the writing and story. It just wasn't what I had come to expect from, arguably, one of the best writers to come along in recent years. So I went back and read THE DARK WIND. I suppose I wanted to see whether my expectations had become unfairly high or if there really was an appreciable ...
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Sacred Clowns (Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Novels) 20 reviews
Tony Hillerman
HarperTorch, 1994
One of the Best
Tony Hillerman is a wonderful author. A Scared Clown is a very outstanding mystery book.
In little town, Shiprock, Officer Chee and Detective Leaphorn discover a human skeleton. Whoever that was, was brutally murdered and it is up to them to crack the mystery. The characters in this book are described where you can just picture what they look like and what everything else looks like. The ...
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Tony Hillerman's Navajoland: Hideouts, Haunts, and Havens in the Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee Mysteries 3 reviews
Laurance Linford
University of Utah Press, 2005
Extremely Useful
I bet that 99 p.c. of Hillerman readers do not know the Four Corners region, the Navajo, Hopi and Zuni reservations to an extend that they can exactly imagine what Joe is looking at when he describes where he is presently driving or standing. Here is where this book comes in. It gives a load of details about small communities, certain mountains or washes or canyons or what have you. b/w photos... ...
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Skinwalkers (Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Novels)23 reviews
Tony Hillerman
HarperTorch, 1990
Superb: A brilliant writer at his absolute best.
Oklahoma's own Tony Hillerman shines brightly with "Skinwalkers", the first of the Leaphorn/Chee mysteries to put the two characters together in the same book. One of the best novels from one of the most brilliant writers of the past 35 years. VERY highly recommended!
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The Sinister Pig 127 reviews
Tony Hillerman
HarperTorch, 2004
A Twisting Tale
Hillerman again skillfully leads his readers through convoluted mysteries while painting verbal pictures of the American West. He switches tantalizingly between the reader's favorite characters, Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, portraying the Navajo lifestyle as he leads us through the passages of a complex maze of clues. Just as we finally discover the name of the story's villain(s), we discover to ...
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A Thief of Time (Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Novels)37 reviews
Tony Hillerman
HarperTorch, 1990
One of Hillerman's best
'A Thief of Time' was Hillerman's 'breakout' book and led to numerous awards, although by the time the book was first printed in 1988 Hillerman had been writing his Leaphorn and Chee Navajo adventure mystery novels for some 18 years.
This tale takes Leaphorn and Chee into the field work of anthropology and archaeology, as well as the shadowy world of 'pot' collectors. The desire to make a ...
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Listening Woman (Joe Leaphorn Novels)24 reviews
Tony Hillerman
HarperTorch, 1990
Action and adventure among the Navajos
This book is a great read with all the plot elements that one could want: Cerebral sleuthing; action and adventure; convoluted plot that keeps you hanging on to the last second; fun characaters; and more.
The story starts with a murder of two people. Hosteen Tso is sick and knows it, so he calls on the services of a Listening Woman to diagnose his ills and get him back on the path to beauty. ...
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The Mysterious West6 reviews
Tony Hillerman
HarperTorch, 1995
Interesting change of pace for Hillerman.
I've been reading a lot of novels lately. 600-pagers. So when I found this collections of short stories, I gave it a try. I love the West; I love short stories; why not a change of pace. Hillerman has collected stories set in the West, not western stories. At first I bridled: Hillerman without Navajos? But once I got into the first story, I was hooked. This is the only collection I have ever read ...
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The Spell of New Mexico1 review
University of New Mexico Press, 1984
The Spell of New Mexico
This is a must read for anyone seriously interested in the state of New Mexico.
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The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century (The Best American Series)10 reviews
Houghton Mifflin, 2001
First Rate Anthology - Good Selections from Ten Decades
The Best American Mysteries Stories of the Century, compiled by Tony Hillerman and Otto Penzler, is a remarkably good anthology. The editors imposed few rules on themselves, other than identifying the best stories. Some years are skipped while others have two or three offerings. They did limit their choices to only one story for a given author, perhaps unfairly penalizing exceptional writers ...
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Hunting Badger (Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Novels)97 reviews
Tony Hillerman
HarperTorch, 2001
Hunting Badger Scores High
Tony Hillerman scores again with his riveting tale of greed and pursuit in the American West. His descriptions of the landscape of the Navajo reservation are just masterful. The characters are well developed and the story is beautifully crafted as usual. If you haven't read any of the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee stories this is a good one to introduce you to the world of the Navajo. Hillerman is a ...
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Talking God (Jim Chee Novels)20 reviews
Tony Hillerman
HarperTorch, 1991
Beautifully structured, compelling mystery
A Jim Chee, Joe Leaphorn mystery and one which shows the character and process of both men in the crime solving. Joe Leaphorn is investigating the death of a man found beside a railroad on the reservation, written in a notebook is a name, Agnes Tssose and a ceremonial. In a separate act Jim Chee is sent to Agnes Tsosse's Night Way ceremonial to find the man, Henry Highhawk who is visiting her, he ...
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Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir22 reviews
Tony Hillerman
Harper Paperbacks, 2002
A 20th Century Life
Hillerman lived a rich but complex life which covered the most imprortant events of the 20th century. An Okie, raised in the depression, he fought in WWII as a boy and went on to a stellar career in reporting. He was raised with and loves the Indian people which enabled him to understand their culture and write so effectively about it.
A Catholic who understands others beliefs but doesn't ...
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The Ghostway13 reviews
Tony Hillerman
HarperTorch, 1992
Shoot out at the Wash-O-Mat
A Shoot out at the Shiprock Wash-O-Mat leads to a puzzle that only Jim Chee with his knowledge of the Ghostway and of death rituals can try to peace together. Related is a disappearance of a school girl (Margaret Sosi) will lead Jim from the New Mexico landscape to the Los Angeles area. There with Hillerman's gift for description we also get a contrasting look of the different worlds. Will He ...
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The Wailing Wind90 reviews
Tony Hillerman
HarperTorch, 2003
My first Tony Hillerman novel
As a member of [...], I wrote a newsletter about the author Tony Hillerman. I had never read one of his mystery novels, which the research for the newsletter inspired me to do. I am glad that I did. It's been a few years since I read a mystery novel and Tony Hillerman brought me back 'into the hunt' with this novel. I found it was an enjoyable novel with good characters a dandy plot. I wish the ...
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Coyote Waits (Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Novels)28 reviews
Tony Hillerman
HarperTorch, 1992
Very good
This book has been recommended to me many times since it was released and I just now got around to reading it. Extraordinary characters populate a beautiful landscape, playing off one another to tell a compelling yet sad tale about an old man, greedy academics, alcoholism, Navajo mysticism, and murder.
I look forward to reading more of Mr. Hillerman's novels.
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The Blessing Way (Joe Leaphorn Novels)26 reviews
Tony Hillerman
HarperTorch, 1990
WHAT HAPPENED TO BERGEN MCKEE?
I have read nearly everything that Tony Hillerman has written and, ironically, I read THE BLESSING WAY, one of Hillerman's first books, last. Doing so has given me some interesting perspectives about Hillerman and his stories.
It's interesting to me, for example, that Joe Leaphorn emerged as such a hero in subsequent Hillerman stories while it is Bergen McKee who is literally the star of THE ...
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