The Shape Shifter

The Shape Shifter is the last of the Navajo mysteries written by by Tony Hillerman. His daughter is now restarting the series — the first of the new books being Spider Woman's Daughter in which Bernie Manuelito (now Mrs. Chee) will play a greater role.

My one complaint with Hillerman's novels is the sheer number of times witches / skinwalkers / shape shifters are initially blamed for a crime. Usually it's only taken as a piece of rumor, but it's still rather tedious.

Now while the Chees are enjoying being newlyweds, Leaphorn, retired, takes on a curious case involving a rug with ties to the Long Walk. The rug (rumored to possibly be cursed) surfaces in a magazine spread years after it was presumed lost to fire.

Tied up with the rug is show more the shape shifter in question. Here it's not a Navajo witch, but identity theft. Leaphorn uses the traditional stories to rationalize the thought process behind the crime.

When I first read the book it felt like a winding-up of the series. To me, Leaphorn felt like Hillerman's authorial stand-in. Although Hillerman wasn't a Navajo, I think he was of the same generation as Leaphorn. I think the future books, by Hillerman's daughter, it would be fitting to say a quiet goodbye to Leaphorn and let Jim and Bernie take center stage. I also have to wonder if Bernie will be Anne Hillerman's authorial stand in. show less

This one is a bang up way to end the series. Leaphorn is the main character and the plotting and character development in this novel are outstanding. The secondary cast of characters that had been appearing in the previous novels are barely there in this novel. Hillerman just got better and better as he wrote this series.

This novel starts out small, with a local theft and pillaging of a trading post in an insurance fraud case. From there it moves to the highlands of Laos and the Hmong diaspora. The book is also filled with lots and lots of cultural touchstones. It was appropriate to be listening to this novel while the latest faux pas by the Great Orange Gasbag occurred. Once again the leader of the Free World insults Indians and show more doesn't even know he is doing it. He should read Tony Hillerman. It would do wonders for his cultural sensitivity. show less

And so we come to the end of the road for the Leaphorn/Chee reading adventure. This is the last book written by the original author, and while I've heard good reviews of the series continuation by his daughter Anne, I don't intend to continue reading after this. So you can imagine how happy I am that this final book went such a long way toward restoring all of my original good feelings about the series.

The main reason, of course, is that it is entirely focused on Joe Leaphorn, the now-retired Navajo Tribal Police lieutenant on whom Hillerman first focused the series. The case, involving an ancient Navajo rug depicting the tragedies inflicted upon the tribe during its forced relocation known as The Long Walk, has callbacks to a case that show more Leaphorn worked when he was a brand-new policeman, many years ago. In the original investigation, the rug was thought to have burned in an arson fire. But when a photo of a rug that looks identical shows up in a glossy lifestyle magazine in Falstaff, one of Leaphorn's former colleagues ropes him in to investigate.

Leaphorn is very nearly his old self here, barring the incessant carping on his supposedly retired state. I wonder if Hillerman realized toward the end that he had made a mistake by putting Leaphorn out to pasture and pushing Jim Chee to the forefront of the series? And I wonder, too, if Hillerman realized this would be his last book, prompting the return to its roots? Regardless of the answer to either of those questions, this is an absorbing mystery and once again contains plenty of Navajo culture and history to make reading it a pleasure. All in all, a satisfying way to end a series read. show less

There is a huge problem with internal chronology with this novel which is hard to read around - in this novel Leaphorn has only been retired for just a little while which would set this story back around the time of the 12th novel. BUT Chee & Bernie have just gotten married, which makes this a logical follow up to number 17. However, if you can put a little editor on your shoulder and adjust all the places where Leaphorn talks about just being retired, the rest of the novel is pretty good. The mystery revolves around a cold case that gets warmed up when the right person (Leaphorn) runs into a random situation that rings a bell. Since Mr. Hillerman has passed away, this is the last of the series, and I have to say that I will miss show more Leaphorn and Chee. show less

The Shape Shifter turns out to be a mixed bag. On the one hand, it's always a pleasure to reunite with the inestimable Joe Leaphorn, now retired from the Navaho Tribal Police and bored. On the other hand, readers will figure out what befell the clever but merciless fugitive Ray Shewnack before Leaphorn does. Almost immediately, readers will suspect that Shewnack, one of the FBI's most wanted due to a crime spree that stretched throughout the Southwest, didn't die in that incredibly convenient fire. Long before a Hmong employee of mogul and art collector Jason Delos inadvertently reveals that Delos and Shewnack are one and the same, readers will have already figured that out.

In addition, the characters simply don't seem realistic. Tommy show more Vang, a Hmong refugee, seems oddly wide-eyed for a war orphan in the employ of a rather unscrupulous man. Sergeant Jim Chee, Leaphorn's erstwhile sidekick, and his new bride, Bernadette "Bernie" Manuelito, play just a minor role. And Bernie, a brave and clever policewoman in previous novels, here turns into a rather silly woman, as if marriage melted women's brains! However, no one but a fellow Leaphorn super-fan will be able to even finish the novel.

I should just hate this novel, but, having missed Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn for so long, I'll extend a bit of latitude to the late Tony Hillerman, his creator. However, this is no Skinwalkers, A Thief of Time or The Fallen Man, and it's really just for true-blue Joe Leaphorn fans. show less

Tony Hillerman does it again. I'm such a fan. I want to have lunch with Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. Great characters, gradually unfolding mystery, a truly evil guy, and the best part, a powerful evocation of a place and a people. And Jim Chee finally got married!

This started as another of the read-straight-through Tony Hillerman's and I was enjoying being as confused as Joe Leaphorn and his friends by all the unfolding mysteries. Then came a lot of repetition, followed later by always unwelcome in-depth hunting scenarios. (Sure happy I don't like fruitcake!)

The worst and still inexplicable was when Navajo Joe condoned the poisoning and
proceeded to watch the dying of a bird. This is not The Navajo Way. Yet, he requested no Healing Ceremony.
This supersedes the plot mysteries.

I skimmed the improbable Tommy Vang ending and tossed the book into the dumpster.

So great to have Anne's books to look forward to with hopefully no animal cruelty.