It might be a little late, but just a reminder that Anne Hillerman, author of the Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito novels, will be at The Poisoned Pen tonight, April 10 at 7 PM. Hillerman is on tour with her latest book, The Tale Teller. Copies of her books, including signed copies of The Tale Teller, are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2Vz7RpV
Here’s the summary of The Tale Teller.
Legendary Navajo policeman Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn takes center stage in this riveting atmospheric mystery from New York Times bestselling author Anne Hillerman that combines crime, superstition, and tradition and brings the desert Southwest vividly alive.
Joe Leaphorn may have retired from the Tribal Police, but he finds himself knee-deep in a perplexing case involving a priceless artifact—a reminder of a dark time in Navajo history. Joe’s been hired to find a missing biil, a traditional dress that had been donated to the Navajo Nation. His investigation takes a sinister turn when the leading suspect dies under mysterious circumstances and Leaphorn himself receives anonymous warnings to beware—witchcraft is afoot.
While the veteran detective is busy working to untangle his strange case, his former colleague Jim Chee and Officer Bernie Manuelito are collecting evidence they hope will lead to a cunning criminal behind a rash of burglaries. Their case takes a complicated turn when Bernie finds a body near a popular running trail. The situation grows more complicated when the death is ruled a homicide, and the Tribal cops are thrust into a turf battle because the murder involves the FBI.
As Leaphorn, Chee, and Bernie draw closer to solving these crimes, their parallel investigations begin to merge . . . and offer an unexpected opportunity that opens a new chapter in Bernie’s life.
*****
Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, shared Michael J. McCann’s review of The Tale Teller.
The Tale Teller: A Leaphorn, Chee and Manuelito Novel by Anne Hillerman. Harper. April 9, 2019 ISBN 10: 006239195X
Native American, Cultural
Heritage, Police Procedural
Reviewer: Michael J. McCann
“more than just a police procedural set in the Southwest, it’s a
reading experience not to be missed. Anne Hillerman has reached a new level of
storytelling . . .”
While recovering from a
gunshot wound to the head, retired Navajo Tribal Police lieutenant Joe Leaphorn
agrees to investigate a case for a friend of his companion, anthropologist
Louisa Bourebonette. An anonymous donation to the Navajo Nation Museum has
arrived missing two invaluable items: a silver bracelet, and a dress said to
have been worn by Juanita, wife of legendary 19th century Navajo chief
Manuelito.
While Leaphorn investigates
the disappearance of these items, Tribal Police officer Bernadette Manuelito is
puzzled by an old man’s story of finding at a flea market an expensive silver
and turquoise bolo tie that was stolen from his bedroom a month ago. Meanwhile her
husband, Tribal Police officer Jim Chee, is investigating a string of
burglaries around Chinle. Is there a possible connection?
When Bernie goes jogging,
however, and discovers the body of a murder victim beside the path, the stakes
become much higher. Are there dangerous forces loose in the Four Corners that
could put their lives at risk? Will there be other victims if this rash of
thefts goes unchecked?
The Tale Teller is the fifth novel in Anne Hillerman’s exemplary police
procedural series set in the southwest United States. Her writing has moved to
another level this time out, and a solid case could be made that it’s her best
to date.
While her characters are
familiar old friends to devoted readers, they once again appear in the pages of
this new offering as rich and well-developed figures. An interesting wrinkle
presents itself when Leaphorn’s head injury results in unexpected difficulties
with spoken English. His initial reliance on Louisa while working the case in
the field results in tensions between the two, and he struggles to make himself
understood when interviewing unilingual English-speaking witnesses on his own.
There’s a sense of relief, shared by the reader, when he can stick to Navajo.
Meanwhile, Bernie Manuelito
continues to charm with her dogged seriousness and her unwavering devotion to
Chee. When the narrator reminds us that while the FBI has jurisdiction over
homicides Bernie has a “natural tendency to get involved,” we know she won’t
rest until she understands exactly what happened to the murder victim she
discovered. Her interactions with FBI special agent Sage Johnson, a
much-improved secondary character, are both determined and amusing.
A staple of Hillerman
procedurals is the use of multiple plot threads that come together “like weft
and warp,” and the author again succeeds in launching Leaphorn, Bernie, and
Chee in separate directions that ultimately overlap either in case details or
in theme. Communication is always the key, and while Leaphorn still doesn’t
particularly like Chee, Bernie functions once more as the adhesive that seems
to bring everyone together.
While characterization and
plot development are strengths, perhaps Anne Hillerman’s finest achievement in The
Tale Teller is the manner in which she integrates the setting of the novel
into her work.
When Chee jumps into his
SUV to drive from Chinle to Canyon de Chelly, the narrator tells us that
“Tséyi’, the place deep in the rocks, made his heart sing . . . No matter how
many times he saw them, the canyon’s buttes, spires, and mesas never failed to
move him to a state of peace.”
Even more striking is when
Joe Leaphorn similarly responds to his surroundings. Unlike Chee, he has never
been one for spiritualism on a personal level, and yet we find him driving his
beat-up truck over Narbona Pass and lowering his window: “The cool air smelled
of ponderosa pine and spruce, and he absorbed the calm.”
Hillerman’s ability to
weave these descriptive details into the inner workings of her characters with
such gentle grace has become a hallmark of her fiction. Readers inhale the pine
and spruce along with Leaphorn, they feel the morning’s heat on the trail to
the Spider Rock overlook, and when Chee looks out over the stunning landscape
and simply “stood in the sun, happy to be alive,” the reader gratefully absorbs
the calm and the peace along with him.
The Tale
Teller is more
than just a police procedural set in the Southwest, it’s a reading experience
not to be missed. Anne Hillerman has reached a new level of storytelling in
this one, and she deserves recognition as one of the finest mystery authors
currently working in the genre.