Being the daughter of the late, great literary wizard, Tony Hillerman, Anne has followed in her father’s footsteps in a great way with this book. Her career is in reporting, as well as being a writer of nonfiction, but now she has released this debut novel featuring characters from Navajo Country that her genius father wrote about for many years.
As the story begins, retired Navajo Police Lieutenant, Joe Leaphorn, is enjoying breakfast with some of his old cohorts who have regular Monday morning sessions to discuss open cases. Officer Bernadette “Bernie” Manuelito
is one of the participants and is married to Jim Chee (another one of Tony Hillerman’s favorite characters).
Leaving breakfast behind, Joe is suddenly shot in the restaurant parking lot and Bernie is a witness; however, she isn’t close enough to identify the shooter.
Leaphorn is transported to the hospital where he lies in a coma, and Jim Chee is put in charge of finding out who harmed Joe and why. The automobile the culprit escaped in is found right away, but the story behind the car is a puzzle. There are many people who have left their fingerprints in this transport over time, yet not one seems to know anything about the crime. To make matters even more interesting, Joe’s lady friend seems to have disappeared without a trace.
Bernie intrudes on the case which causes problems for her boss; but with Jim and Bernie working together, the past slowly comes to light as they discover that a killer and a cold case have a direct impact on Joe’s shooting…and now the shooter is coming for them.
The Hillerman clan has always produced amazing mysteries set in New Mexico and Arizona, and all that can be said for Anne‘s debut is that she definitely made her father proud.
Until Next Time, Everybody,
Amy Lignor
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