Books with author Tony Hillerman

As readers of Tony Hillerman's detective novels know, he is a skilled interpreter of southwestern Indian cultures. In this book, first published in 1972, he recounts a Zuni myth first recorded a century ago by the anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing. Hillerman's version of the story, written to be read by children ten years old and up, will have equal appeal for adults with an interest in Native American culture. "In our society," Hillerman explains, "this would be called a 'Bible story.' Like stories based on the Old Testament, this narrative is intended to teach both the history and morality of a people." It tells the consequences of a drought in which Zuni crops were ruined and the tribe was forced to accept charity from neighboring Hopis. Tony Hillerman (1925–2008) was an award-winning author and newspaperman, best known for his mystery novels set in Navajoland. He was also the author of The Great Taos Bank Robbery and Other True Stories (UNM Press).

1988 IMPRESS hardcover, Tony Hillerman (The Blessing Way ). At a moonlit Indian ruin-where "thieves of time" ravage sacred ground in the name of profit-a noted anthropologist vanishes while on the verge of making a startling, history-altering discovery. At an ancient burial site, amid stolen goods and desecrated bones, two corpses are discovered, shot by bullets fitting the gun of the missing scientist. - Amazon

Sacred Clowns, published in 1993, is number eleven in the Joe Leaphorn / Jim Chee Navajo Police series written by the deceased Tony Hillerman. While the original Leaphorn and Chee series has eighteen books, his daughter Anne Hillerman has continued the series with books nineteen through soon-to-be-released twenty-three. I came across Tony Hillerman's series when researching Ancestral Pueblos and Hopi. Although most of Hillerman's books are deeply rooted on the Navajo Rez, the Sacred Clowns novel branched out into the world of Hopi customs, including the Kachina Koshare, as well as life within a Pueblo. This book also hints at the complicated inter-relationship between different Native American groups, such as when Chee, a Navajo, is awed by the Cheyenne FBI agent whom he refers to as "an Indian's Indian." C-6

The fifth novel featuring Leaphorn and Chee by New York Times bestselling author Tony Hillerman, now reissued in the Premium Plus format.The corpse had been “scalped,” its palms and soles removed after death. Sergeant Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police knows immediately he will have his hands full with this case, a certainty that is supported by the disturbing occurrences to follow. A mysterious nighttime plane crash, a vanishing shipment of cocaine, and a bizarre attack on a windmill only intensify Chee’s fears. A dark and very ill wind is blowing through the Southwestern desert, a gale driven by Navajo sorcery and white man’s greed. And it will sweep away everything unless Chee can somehow change the weather.

New York Times BestsellerThe New York Times bestselling novel by master writer Tony Hillerman—an electrifying thriller of revenge, secrets, and murder.“One of the best of the series.”—New York Times Book ReviewOld Joseph Joe sees it all. Two strangers spill blood at the Shiprock Wash-O-Mat. One dies. The other drives off into the dry lands of the Big Reservation, but not before he shows the old Navajo a photo of the man he seeks.This is all Tribal Policeman Jim Chee needs to set him off on an odyssey that moves from a trapped ghost in an Indian hogan to the seedy underbelly of L.A. to an ancient healing ceremony where death is the cure, and into the dark heart of murder and revenge.