The Wailing Wind (Hardcover)

Hillerman, following the last two or three works that seemed to have been disappointments (somewhat) even to his most ardent followers, takes this one and demonstrates that after 14 previous novels featuring Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee and the Navajo tribal world he can still spin a tale.

Drawing from a previous incident in an earlier work, Hillerman opens "The Wailing Wind" with officer Bernadette Manuelito discovering a body in an abandoned pickup truck. In addition to reporting the scene, of course, she makes some procedural mistakes and Hillerman is off and running. Besides Officer Manuelito taking a larger role in Hillerman's works, the fusion and relationship between Leaphorn and Chee is never better and the chemistry continues to work well. Chee's young--and sometimes hasty--ways are always tempered by Leaphorn's experience and older judgment. What a team!

Hillerman's revelations and plot summations are not always so complicated and involved, as in this case, but his devotion to great character development, presentation of landscape, atmosphere, native American culture and history, and sound logic in thought and deed make "The Wailing Wind" one of his best works. This is a relief, of course, to his readers, who are always one breath away of thinking that the last one's the last one! So far so good.

In "The Wailing Wind," murder, greed, jealousy, and a bit of madness play into the darker side of the book's development. Fortunately, Hillerman is sound in his delivery of good and just practices and human beings. Here, while the book may not leave the reader mesmerized from page to page to the extent you can't put it down, the author takes control of all developments and his pacing and nuance never let the story get away from him.

Perhaps more than anything, his works are about relationships rather than "who done it." Either way, Hillerman's a man/author of the Southwest whose appeal seems universal. "The Wailing Wind" is worth the time and effort. In fact, it's a pleasure.
(Billyjhobbs@tyler.net)

All of our old palls from previous novels converge on the seen that turn out to be a homicide as the individual was shot in the back.

As the story progresses we get the thing that makes Hillerman, Hillerman; there are graphic descriptions of the landscape and weather. We also get a small indoctrination into the Navaho way as a shaman and an old man are interrogated. Yes and the is also a love interest or two as scene mostly through the eves of Joe Leaphorn, Jim Chee, and suspect Wiley Denton of who seems to have misplaced his wife..

I suggest that just before you read this or while you are reading this that you also have a copy of the book "Hillerman Country: A Journey Through the Southwest with Tony Hillerman" It is a book filled with the pictures of the areas mentioned in this book (Including the torques mountain.)

You can tell that this book was written later on the series because the characters refer back to earlier times and other misters. The references are casual enough that if you had not read the other books you would not notice them.

As with most Hillerman novels the answer to the main riddle is usually immediately or soon figured out so we have fun finding out how long it will take the characters to catch up. Many a time different characters have clues and do not compare in time to act.

It's a pretty pathetic story, filled with lazy writing, poor grammar, continuity errors, a solution the reader can spot a third of the way into the book, zero character development, a tepid romance and very little Navaho culture. This is definitely not a book for newcomers-Hillerman clearly assumes that the reader is already invested in the characters and cares about them, 'cause he spends no time making them at all interesting or human. I can forgive a lot in a mystery as long as there's decent atmosphere and clever mystery, this has smidgens of the former, but none of the latter. It reminded me of nothing so much as an old Hardy Boys story. If you want a book about a lost gold mine in Indian lands that has excellent character development, great tension and suspense, and gritty social commentary, get a copy of B. Traven's classic Treasure of the Sierra Madre instead.