Great Storyteller Passes Away

I remember the first time I heard of Tony Hillerman. It was in a Cultural Anthropology class while I attended university. My professor, who had spent most of his career studying Native American cultures of the Southwest, kept raving about the latest novel he was reading. It was a mystery novel set in the American Southwest and the protagonists were Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, two Navajo Tribal Policemen. This professor was a big Tony Hillerman fan, and he mentioned how rich the author's descriptions were, not just of the region, which played an integral part of the story, but also of the Native American cultures. This intrigued me. Many mystery novels are so wrapped up in plot twists and suspense, they tend to shortchange the reader on characterization or setting. The first book I read, was not the first of his novels, but The Fallen Man.

I was drawn to the opening pages which took place at Shiprock. I finished the novel and then went to the library searching for every other Hillerman book I could find. Of course, many of those were checked out, so it was onto used bookstores and regular bookstores. Until I'd read them all. Naturally I was very sad today when I read the article on the BBC News page reporting that Tony Hillerman had died.

If you enjoy mysteries, ones that have rich characters in a setting so well described that you feel you've been there, try one of Tony Hillerman's novels. And for an added bonus, take a trip to the Southwest and experience some of the landscape and culture for yourself. One of these days I hope to scan in some of the photographs I've taken on vacations in New Mexico and on a road trip we took through New Mexico and Arizona.