Talking God

Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn (Navajo Tribal Police) have investigations that dovetail. Both end up in Washington, DC and have to cope with federal bureaucracy and the FBI in the big city. Highhawk somewhat came across as a caricature and Leaphorn's murder victim he's trying to identify has an overly complex background that complicates the plot. Worth reading if you're a Hillerman fan but start with one of the others if he's a new author for you.

TALKING GOD offers a complicated tale, with more coincidences than Leaphorn might have approved.

It also has few of the descriptions of land that were so beautifully rendered in A THIEF OF TIME -
and shows no clarifying map.

I already miss Leaphorn and Chee - and sure wish Henry Highhawk had been around for more sequels.

Don't Start Here (If You've Never Read Hillerman, That Is): Hillerman has carved out his own niche in the American mystery genre, that of the Southwestern Navajo reservation, and it is one I return to again and again with the confidence of receiving pleasure and edification (Hillerman, not an American Indian himself, nevertheless qualifies as a world class expert on the ways and folklore of these people and he renders them beautifully and cogently for his readers). He is no literary mystery novelist on the order of a James Lee Burke or P.D. James or Joseph Hansen, but he is a more than solid storyteller who creates a world unlike that most of us have ever visited. He has his weaknesses - stilted dialogue and often one dimensional show more characterizations - but they are more than compensated for by Hillerman's uncanny sense of place and pace.With that said, let me warn you not to start with TALKING GOD if you have never read Hillerman, first of all because he uproots his famed protagonists Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee from their normal bailiwick and transplants them in Washington, D.C., as they attempt to unravel more than one mystery that all seem to lead back to Indian burial rituals and illegally unearthed remains and conflict with foreign governments. It's a good book, solid and compelling for the most part and it features a truly frightening villain, maybe Hillerman's best bad guy up to that point, but we miss the "Res" and the natural mystery of its landscape and the wonderful way Hillerman makes it come alive. So wait on this one and start with DANCE HALL OF THE DEAD or THE BLESSING WAY. TALKING GOD will come as a later treat once you have properly acquainted yourself with the mystery and magic of Hillerman's peculiar world. show less

This was my first Hillerman novel and I thoroughly enjoyed it. An activist Navajo wannabe gets arrested for graveyard robbery while an older man is found dead by the railroad tracks, without identifying information including teeth. The story had Native American aspects that I found interesting, the characters were believable, and the mystery plausible. I gave it an extra 1/2 star for keeping me up past my bedtime to finish the last 30 or so pages.

Another novel read from my tbr list! "Talking God" is #9 in the Leaphorn & Chee series. I have enjoyed every one of Mr. Hillerman's novels. Each one is engaging, with new story ideas and plots that continue the adventures of characters that the readers have come to know.
"Talking God" follows several different mysteries within the storyline. Heny Highhawk, a Smithsonian conservator, who embraces his part Navajo culture. Highhawk is arrested by Jim Chee for sending a co-worker her famous ancestor's bones in protest of the Smithsonian housing and not returning ancestral remains to Native Americans. Jim Chee crosses paths with fellow detective, Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, who is investigating a nearby murder that appears to be unrelated, but show more are they?
I found this well written and enjoyed the change in setting.
I'm looking forward to the newest season of "Dark Winds"! show less

Another novel read from my tbr list! "Talking God" is #9 in the Leaphorn & Chee series. I have enjoyed every one of Mr. Hillerman's novels. Each one is engaging, with new story ideas and plots that continue the adventures of characters that the readers have come to know.
"Talking God" follows several different mysteries within the storyline. Heny Highhawk, a Smithsonian conservator, who embraces his part Navajo culture. Highhawk is arrested by Jim Chee for sending a co-worker her famous ancestor's bones in protest of the Smithsonian housing and not returning ancestral remains to Native Americans. Jim Chee crosses paths with fellow detective, Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, who is investigating a nearby murder that appears to be unrelated, but show more are they?
I found this well written and enjoyed the change in setting.
I'm looking forward to the newest season of "Dark Winds"! show less

Leaphorn and Chee find their way to Washington D.C., on their own time, for different reasons that connect, of course. This story is unusual in Hillerman's work in that it takes place in the east, and that other nationalities are involved. And (this seems to be a theme in my recent reading), the reader meets the culprit long before the detectives do. From the Navajo's point of view, the case concerns a dead man near the Amtrak tracks in Navajo country, and an attempt to return Native American remains to proper graves in their homeland. But other forces, other colors are woven into the story.

Hillerman may have been trying to break out of the particular venue and dynamic of the Din'eh with this book. In the end, however, all the Navajos show more go home. As does the author. show less