I've been reading Tony Hillerman's mysteries since about the time I began putting these pages together (and that may be nearly 20 years). He's been one of my favorite authors all along.
| I took a 25-year-old Tony Hillerman novel to Sidetrack to divert me from the research and writing I was going to be doing about Nigerian politics. It was probably written just about the time I began reading these mysteries set on the Navajo reservation. It is the fourth one he wrote. Hillerman's next book isn't due out until November '04, so I thought an old one would do. I know I read People of Darkness long ago, but I had no memory of it. The oldest version of these pages that I have is from November 1989, and I mentioned rereading People of Darkness then. I didn't elaborate. That's one of the joys of rereading old mysteries: they're new again! It turns out that People of Darkness was the debut for Jim Chee, one of Hillerman's Navajo cops. Jim Chee was created because Hillerman signed a contract without reading it and lost television and film rights to his first main character, Joe Leaphorn. (Remember, friends, always read the contract, and if you don't understand it, ask your friendly attorney to read it for you.) The book was good. I enjoyed reading it. (And I got lots of work done about Nigeria, too.) The story is mostly told through dialogue, and Hillerman is a master of it. It reminded me how those early Hillerman novels were filled with little lectures about Navajo culture and the landscape of the Navajo reservation. In this case, the conversations are between Jim Chee and a young Anglo school teacher who came from Wisconsin to teach at the Crownpoint school. The lectures are mostly Jim Chee's answers to Mary Landon's questions. In spite of the little lectures, the story never drags. There are scenes of deadly drama, but they're mostly tense rather than graphic. The plot is nicely convoluted and complex. Hillerman dropped little clues along the story path, but never gave away too much (at least not for an oblivious literalist like me). This one goes back on the shelf to be reread in the future. You can probably find a copy in your friendly library. It might be worth the trip. |
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By Ken Wedding. 08.19.02 Updated 08.16.04.
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