Spider Woman's Daughter

I thought Tony Hillerman's popular Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee Navajo mysteries ended with Mr. Hillerman's death.  A shame, I felt, because his books created a unique window on the residents of the Navajo Nation and those who risk their lives to protect them and their way of life.  He captured the physical beauty of the area in way that made me long to visit it and see it for myself.  But after reading Spider Woman's Daughter (#338), I'm very happy to say that his daughter, Anne Hillerman, seems to have picked up right where her father stopped.  The mantle has been successfully passed.

Bernadette Manuelita is now married to Jim Chee and back on the Navajo Police force after a stint with US Border Patrol.  She's happy and honored to be the patrol officer invited to this week's breakfast briefing with  senior law enforcement in Window Rock.  She's just behind retired Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn when he heads out to the parking lot; he's working on an insurance appraisal and she needs to get back to Shiprock.  That makes her an eyewitness when a lone gunman walks up to Leaphorn and shoots him at point blank range.  It also makes her ineligible to work the case as Joe hovers close to death and the Navajo Police and FBI scramble for the identity of the shooter and a motive for the crime.  Could a cold case of Joe's be the key to the shooting?

Most of the characters in Spider Woman's Daughter will be familiar to readers of Hillerman's previous work, but Anne has taken Bernie and Jim Chee's relationship further.  Not precisely newlyweds any longer, the couple is working out both their private and professional strengths and weaknesses.  Jim must deal with the probable loss of his mentor, Joe, and Bernie has her hands full with a sister who doesn't take care of their dependent mother and who seems to be slipping into a an aimless and unsatisfying life.  But one thing Bernie and Chee can agree on, and that's the urgency to find Joe Leaphorn's shooter.  Their skills mesh as both contribute important pieces to solving this puzzle.

If you're a Tony Hillerman fan, you won't be disappointed by his daughter Anne's work; you'll just naturally become her fan as well.  Recommended.