Spider Womans Daughter
by Hillerman, Anne
pub. by Harper Collins, NY. 2013     isbn - 978-0-06-227048-1 - - 307 pages
The author, Anne Hillerman, is the daughter of Anthony (Tony) Hillerman, the Edgar award winning author of the Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn mystery series, and many other great books.
This story begins with Joe Leaphorn, a retired Navajo police detective being shot in the head outside one of the spots where some of the force meet over breakfast. Female Navajo police officer Bernie Manuelito witnesses the attack. The attacker speeds away. The rest of the mystery involves hunting down the shooter. Leaphorn, though shot in the head does not die, but is gravely injured, and is on the edge of death. Bernie is married to Navajo police detective Jim Chee. She is ordered to take some vacation, and stand down, but is given a minor task to notify Leaphorn relatives. The story has a number of twists and refers back to cases in previous books in the series, which were written by Tony Hillerman. No knowldege of these is needed to make sense of this story, but knowing of them can enrich the experience of reading this one.
Anne Hillerman choses a person from the original cast of Navajo policeman introduced in mysteries written by her father. In this she works the story through female eyes, a nice change. The writing is very good. The story proceeds apace, and is in fact a ~page turner~. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, and do hope she continues the series. She has proven that she is up to the task.
A very good read.
~ 2015-08-22 ~

to Books index page.

-