Anne Hillerman
Book blurb:
A deadly bombing takes Navajo Tribal cops Bernadette Manuelito, Jim Chee, and their mentor, the legendary Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, back into the past to find a vengeful killer in this riveting Southwestern mystery from the bestselling author of Spider Woman’s Daughter and Rock with Wings.
When a car bomb kills a young man in the Shiprock High School parking lot, Officer Bernadette Manuelito discovers that the intended victim was a mediator for a multi-million-dollar development planned at the Grand Canyon.
But what seems like an act of ecoterrorism turns out to be something far more nefarious and complex. Piecing together the clues, Bernadette and her husband, Sergeant Jim Chee, uncover a scheme to disrupt the negotiations and inflame tensions between the Hopi and Dine tribes.
Retired Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn has seen just about everything in his long career. As the tribal police’s investigation unfolds, he begins to suspect that the bombing may be linked to a cold case he handled years ago. As he, Bernadette, and Chee carefully pull away the layers behind the crime, they make a disturbing discovery: a meticulous and very patient killer with a long-simmering plan of revenge.
Writing with a clarity and grace that is all her own, Anne Hillerman depicts the beauty and mystery of Navajo Country and the rituals, myths, and customs of its people in a mystery that builds on and complements the beloved, bestselling mysteries of her acclaimed father, Tony Hillerman.
Anne Hillerman's books are set in the same world that her father Tony Hillerman created. And like those books, they present the lives and the land of the Navajos. And just like her father's books, they're lovely. The world they've created of quiet, empty, beautiful country is always a sharp contrast with my daily life of traffic, congested roads, and lots of people. Of a people content to sit and wait for a conversation to begin, rather than having to constantly check a cell phone in every spare minute.
My biggest complaint about this book is minor in the overall scope: the treatment of Diabetes. Based on the description, I'm assuming the character had Type 1, not Type 2. In either case, some of the details were way off. Someone wouldn't check their A1C to determine if they're low right now; it's a measure of the number of glucose molecules attached to a hemoglobin molecule. As a hemoglobin molecule lasts around 3 months, the test is a three month average of one's blood sugars. Likewise, if one's blood sugar is low, the individual would start eating before injecting more insulin - being low is a horrible feeling! I'd also have expected the character to have something to raise his blood sugar with him especially since the stress of the negotiations has been causing his blood sugar to be low. I know, I know - these all are minor details, but they're things that would be easy to get right. If she misses these details, what details about the Navajo culture did she get wrong?
While I don't think this was the best book in the series, it was still an enjoyable read.
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