The Wailing Wind

The Dinee are alive and well, and all the old familiar names and places are present: Janet Pete and Mary Landon, old loves who haunt Sergeant Jim Chee; Dr. Louisa Bourebonette, confidante/companion to Lt. Joe Leaphorn, retired, of the Navajo Tribal Police; and Officer Bernadette Manuelito, who is beginning to have a major psychic impact on Jim Chee. George Guidall is once again masterful in this practiced combo of author and narrator. But this is a thin plot in which an old case is reopened several years after the fact by seemingly unrelated fresh murders motivated by gold lust. Guidall is totally convincing as the presenter of this cast of characters who have dwelled so long in our imaginations that the recycled plot is a disappointing contrast. M.D.H. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

Starred review from April 15, 2002
The 15th Chee/Leaphorn mystery (after 1999's relatively weak Hunting Badger) finds MWA Grand Master Hillerman back at the top of his form as his two Navajo peace officers look into both a past and present mystery. Religious fervency and single-minded greed become strange but necessary bedfellows in a plot filled, as always, with insights into the lives and beliefs of the "Dineh." When an abandoned pickup truck turns out to contain one very dead white man, Sgt. Jim Chee's instincts lead him to bring retired Lt. Joe Leaphorn into the case. Leaphorn's trademark curiosity sends him in search of possible links between this homicide and another two years earlier. The first murder occurred on Halloween day when Wiley Denton supposedly shot Marvin McKay in self-defense after McKay tried to sell him bogus information about an old gold mine. That same day Denton's wife, Linda, disappeared; she has never been heard from again. Leaphorn's recollection of what had been shrugged off as a Halloween prank out at old Fort Wingate now becomes the itch he has to scratch. It seems a group of teens shortcutting across the area had endured a close call with La Llorana, a mythical wailing woman. The information he gathers adds yet another piece to the puzzle of the missing Linda. Chee is up to his elbows in not only the investigation but also in sorting through his growing emotional confusion about the beautiful Bernadette Manuelito. The seemingly insignificant turns critical and the loose ends tie up in one tidy conclusion as Hillerman repeatedly shines in this masterfully complex new novel. (On sale May 7)Forecast:The strength of this latest Chee/Leaphorn mystery, plus a major publicity push that includes national advertising and a three-city author tour, should ensure a healthy run on bestseller lists. Hillerman's recent memoir,
Seldom Disappointed (Forecasts, Sept. 24, 2001), will also give a boost.