Finally! Jim has quit being obtuse and might actually have a healthy relationship with someone who he can make a real life with! There wasn't much of a mystery to this one, but certainly the premise of smuggling drugs was intriguing. ( )

This is not my favorite Hillerman book, seemed to have a bit of a rant about the "drug war" and all. However, it was a concise little story, not so much a mystery as a way to forward events in the life of Jim Chee. I enjoyed the read, even if I didn't feel it was one of his best mysteries. ( )

Another good yarn from Hillerman. A good detective tale, but with a less explosive finale than usual, and with more new information about pipe technology than about Navajo culture. ( )

Hillerman pulls in corrupt government and a corrupt millionaire from the East and sends Bernie off to become a Border Patrol. The dead body that starts the investigation is found on Navajo Tribal land but most of the action takes place near the Mexican border. Joe and Chee work together to solve this mystery and save Bernie’s life. Not one of Hillerman’s best—the ending is weak and Bernie is really saved by one of the villains having a change of heart. ( )

Got this one for my birthday.

There's something off about it, but I couldn't figure out what. I know the book feels oddly short.

But I did giggle when I realized that Leaphorn and Chee are so similar to Sam Vimes and Captain Carrot of the Discworld. Like the Navajo version, which means Leaphorn is not quite like Vimes (although neither one of them is supposed to drink). But as I read Chee's sometime girlfriend Officer Manuelito describing him to her friend it sounded an awful lot like Angua describing Carrot.

"Honey, time to get smart. That man hurt your feelings. But he really likes you."

"Oh yeah," Bernie said. "He also likes stray cats and retarded kids and..."

I enjoyed Chee's interactions with his Hopi colleague too. And Officer Manuelito fits most of the famous requirements for a good female character-she even basically rescues herself from the people who try to kidnap her.

But then she sort of agrees to give up being a cop and marry Chee. It's not that I don't want them to get married, I do, but I wanted her to stay a cop. If she ceases to be one, then one day she "won't understand him" and the author will have to break them up or something.

Officer Manuelito is part of the Border Patrol and it's interesting to see the Navajo attitude toward illegal imigration as opposed to the "white person's". ( )