A review of the audiobook | Talking God (Jim Chee Novels)

Leaphorn and Chee join forces | Talking God (Jim Chee Novels) | Tony Hillerman

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	• Talking God (Jim Chee Novels) Tony Hillerman HarperTorch, 1991 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 22 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Thriller off the Big Rez

The dead man beside the train tracks near Gallup wore an elegant suit of clothes and narrow leather shoes more suitable to the city than the middle of the desert. The FBI agent called Joe Leaphorn in to search for tracks.

Jim Chee was just doing what he was told. He went out to the back of the Big Rez to the healing sing for old lady Tsosie to arrest a white man calling himself Henry Highhawk. The charge was grave-robbing, something no true Navajo could stand.

This book is not typical of Tony Hillerman's mysteries. For one thing, most of the action takes place in Washington, DC where both his Navajo cops are terribly out of place. For another, the plot runs along thriller lines. The denouement is spectacular, fun and set in the Smithsonian. Could there be a better or more baffling place to hide a body? Hillerman has created a memorable hitman and the "accidental" working out of justice is not to be missed.

Tony Hillerman died Oct 26, 2008 at the age of 83. This is not his best book, but it still beats many thrillers written today!

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A review of the audiobook

This one is good, but not the typical Tony Hillerman book. Rather than being based in the Four Corners area, this one mostly takes place in Washington, D.C.

It is interesting to see D.C. through Navajo eyes, but we do spend a lot of time in the mind of the bad guy as well, which is to the detriment of the story in my mind.

Chee's personal life features prominently, as does Leaphorn's painful loneliness.

I would have rated the book as four stars, but I am reviewing the audiobook. My audiobook was read by John MacDonald and I cannot think of a worse pairing than MacDonald's voice and Hillerman's writing. It's not that MacDonald isn't clear - he's easy to understand. But, his voice sounds like Eastern establishment, not Western. This audiobook lasted about 6 hours and 35 minutes.

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Leaphorn and Chee join forces

How can a corpse show up in the middle of the desert, with no foot tracks leading to it or from it? Right next to a railroad track? That is how this book begins and it immediately captures your interest as Lt. joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Tribal Police is brought in by an FBI agent to investigate. What makes this even more interesting is that neither the FBI, nor the Navajos have jursdiction in the case since there is no evidence of a federal level crime, nor is the crime performed on the reservation. Nonetheless, Leaphorn cannot abide by the mystery and he slowly unravels the depths of it through careful deductive logic and calling on his myriad of friends in all walks of life.

At the same time, Jim Chee is asked to arrest a white man who wants to be a Navajo but who is a fugitive from justice in Washington DC. Chee starts wondering about why the man is involved in Navajo religious affairs and how come he knows so much about it. Then, when his friend Janet Pete calls from Washington to ask him to help, he takes some vacation time off and flies out to help Pete.

Leaphorn also ends up in Washington as a result of his own investigations - and also on vacation! - so it is no surprise that they meet up and end up investigating what turn out to be related activities. In addition to these, the author throws in a distant country's internal turmoil, all kinds of Indian religious artifacts and ceremonies, and weaves all that in with a powerful sense of how much the Indians feel out of touch in a modern american city.

The plotting is very intricate but you quickly get the sense of how the various activites interrelate and the final scene that brings everyone together is somewhat of a letdown as it is so predictable. I still enjoy Tony Hillerman's writing style and story telling ideas so to have me take two stars away form his rating needs explanation: First star came off for the plotting which crossed the line from suspended dis-belief to ridiculous. Here are two cops, who both take vacation to the same city to investigate crimes or non-crimes? And the local police force is more than willing to have them access all kinds of crime scenes and have access to all the work that the locals do. And if it is not bad enough that the DC police does this, the FBI does it as well. Based on what?

The second star removed was because almost all of the action takes place in Washington which is far removed from the normal Hillerman haunts and it shows. The description of the city and its inhabitants suffers when you read any of his other books and realize how much better he is at describing the Navajo nation.

Overall, this is a pedestrian effort and only belongs in your library if you are an avid Hillerman fan - which I am.

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Beautifully structured, compelling mystery

A Jim Chee, Joe Leaphorn mystery and one which shows the character and process of both men in the crime solving. Joe Leaphorn is investigating the death of a man found beside a railroad on the reservation, written in a notebook is a name, Agnes Tssose and a ceremonial. In a separate act Jim Chee is sent to Agnes Tsosse's Night Way ceremonial to find the man, Henry Highhawk who is visiting her, he has no idea why he has to arrest him, but observes him briefly before arresting him.

There are a number of threads running through her, but in seperate acts both Leaphorn and Chee end up in Washington DC following leads - Leaphorn to find out who the dead man is, and Chee following what is happening to Henry Highhawk and the Smithsonian.

Henry Highhawk is a born again Navajo - his grandmother is Agnes Tsosse but he has only just found that out - he has been learning all about the spirituality and culture of the Navajo and has been setting up a diorama at the Smithsonian to represent the masks of the gods, but it seems he has another presentation in mind. A much more visible act to get the world's attention and to protest against the continued storage of native American skeletons and remains at the museum.

However there are other forces at work, there is something going on at an embassy in Washington which Leaphorn suspects is related but he does not understand how - finally Jim Chee and Leaphorn meet up in Washington to compare notes and it all becomes clear.

The difference in the two men, in their styles of crime solving and the process is fascinating. Jim Chee is slightly more gauche, disturbing a tramp with unexpected results, and yet having much more of a spiritual belief. Joe Leaphorn is older, and while not necessarily more astute, he is much more poised.

I love these mysteries, I noticed someone said don't read this one first. I don't know about that, I have read these all out of order but I haven't read all of them either. This is a great book, a good demonstration of their abilities and a good read which keeps you guessing until the end.

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The Ghostway by Tony Hillerman

I love Hillerman's books. Not only are they entertaining, but they are filled with factual information about the Southwest. I am never bored, and usually finish one of his books in three days.
Suzie Chiles

A grave robber and a corpse reunite Navajo Tribal Police Lt. Joe Leaphorn and Officer Jim Chee. As Leaphorn seeks the identity of a murder victim, Chee is arresting Smithsonian conservator Henry Highhawk for ransacking the sacred bones of his ancestors. As the layers of each case are peeled away, it becomes shockingly clear that they are connected, that there are mysterious others pursuing Highhawk, and that Leaphorn and Chee have entered into the dangerous arena of superstition, ancient ceremony, and living gods.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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