The new book is The Wailing Wind, a novel that brings together two sad stories. The investigative
action centers around a legendary New Mexico gold mine, two murders separated by many years,
and a children's Halloween scare. Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, the familiar Navajo police officers from
Hillerman's other New Mexico novels are active and in character. Bernadette Manuelito becomes
a main character and more obviously a love interest for Jim Chee. (That's a bit of promise that there's
more story to come. Just remember, the guy's in his late seventies.)

Some of the pieces of this mystery fall together too conveniently for Leaphorn and Chee, but in another
section of the book Manuelito and Chee ingeniously answer one set of questions in different ways. It's a
bit of the old master's plotting that helps make the book a pleasure.

As usual, in Hillerman's books, the familiar characters and landscape play a vital role. I really like
these imaginary people. And sometimes I like Hillerman's descriptions of the beauty of the desert
landscape more than I like the desert itself. When I'm in the desert, I'm often distracted by the
unfamiliar and uncomfortable heat and sun to pay attention to the beauty of the landscape. (Is that a
hint that I should spend more time in New Mexico?) While this novel doesn't measure up to my memories
of Hillerman at his best (Thief of Time), I've never been disappointed with one of his books. He can count
on me to be in the bookstore whenever he writes more.

As a footnote, I bought a used copy of Hillerman's Dancehall of the Dead in Yachats, Oregon
while on vacation. Dancehall is one of the early Joe Leaphorn mysteries (before Hillerman lost the
rights to use the Leaphorn character and before Hillerman bought the rights back from those clever lawyers).
I really enjoyed rereading this book. Two things struck me as I compared this 1973 novel with the more recent ones.

Hillerman used to spend a lot more time describing the landscape and the weather. Most
of the descriptions were paeans to the rugged beauty of the desert and mountain territory. I enjoyed them.

The plot of Dancehall was a lot more complex than the plots of more recent novels. I don't know if that's
a generalization or just a comparison. I guess I'm ready to read anew some of the other older Hillerman
novels. And I highly recommend them to you.

A month after reading Dancehall of the Dead in Oregon, I read Hillerman's first mystery: The Blessing Way.
It was originally published in 1970, at least 15 years before I discovered the beauties of New Mexico
and Hillerman's prose.

This first novel also includes a great deal more detail about the desert landscape and weather of
the Navajo Nation. It also includes much more detail about Navajo culture than I remember from other
books. And like Dancehall of the Dead, the plot is more complex than some of the later books.

What I had forgotten was how well Hillerman could write suspense and danger. The last sixty
pages of The Blessing Way kept my heart thumping. After finishing, I remembered that there were a couple times
that Hillerman kept me on the edge of my seat. I don't have a good enough memory to make meaningful comparisons
between these first books and the most recent ones, but I find Hillerman's books real pleasures. I might have
to read some more of them again.