The Dark Wind (1982)The great pleasure of Tony Hillerman's series of police procedurals--featuring Sgt. Jim Chee and/or Lt. Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Tribal Police--lies not in details of procedure, nor cleverness of the puzzle to be solved, nor in particularly interesting characters. Many other series do these things better. What Hillerman really excels at is bringing alive a region of the country, the Four Corners in the Southwest, and an unfamiliar social milieu, the American Indian reservation. His writing evokes the rugged beauty and utter desolation of desert and mesa, and his descriptions of Navajo (and, in this novel, Hopi) religious beliefs and tribal customs portray a truly fascinating culture. In Dark Wind, Chee must try to solve several cases : the fatal crash of a drug-running airplane; a jewel robbery; and the repeated sabotaging of a local windmill. They turn out, predictably, to be interrelated, and the conclusion is fairly pro forma. But then there's the almost incidental insight into Chee's way of thinking, when he's talking to the sister of the pilot who died in the crash : 'Do you understand "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth"?' 'I've heard it,' Chee said. 'Don't you believe in justice? Don't you believe that things need to be evened up?' Chee shrugged. 'Why not?' he said. As
a matter of fact, the concept seemed as strange to him as the
Now Hillerman may or may not have this stuff right, who knows. And I may think that many of the beliefs explored are so much hogwash. But somehow, the books give you the feeling that you're fulfilling that annoying old college requirement of "Knowledge of a Culture Other Than Your Own" in the most enjoyable way imaginable. (Reviewed:) Grade: (B) Tweet Websites:-WIKIPEDIA: Tony Hillerman -FILMOGRAPHY: Tony Hillerman (IMDB) -ENTRY: Tony Hillerman American novelist (Encyclopaedia Britannica) -ENTRY: HILLERMAN, TONY (1925–2008) (Oklahoma Historical Society) -The Tony Hillerman Portal (University of New Mexico College of University Libraries and Learning Sciences) -Finding Aid of the Tony Hillerman Papers, 1964-1996 (The University of New Mexico, University Libraries, Center for Southwest Research) -Hillerman country! (The Unofficial Tony Hillerman Homepage) -BOOK SITE: Skinwalkers (Harper Collins) -WIKIPEDIA: Skinwalkers -VIDEO: Tony Hillerman: The Art Of Mystery: An intimate look into the master mystery writers mind. Hillerman explains his inspirations, triumphs and disasters of writing his famous Jim Chee mystery series set in the Southwest. (New Mexico PBS, Dec 5, 2009) -VIDEO: Tony Hillerman, by Anne Hillerman: The Authors Road traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico and met with writer and journalist Anne Hillerrman, daughter of legendary Southwest mystery writer and one-time journalist, Tony Hillerman (1925 - 2008) (George Mason: Author's Road, 10/11/13) -VIDEO: Coyote Waits (2003) (PBS: Mystery, You Tube) -AUDIO: Dance Hall of the Dead by Tony Hillerman (You Tube) -VIDEO: Skinwalker-Curse of the Shaman (2005) (PBS: Mystery, YouTube) -INTERVIEW: Politics and the Reservation: PW Talks with Tony Hillerman (Judy Bates, Apr 14, 2003, Publishers Weekly) -INTERVIEW: Going in Beauty: An Interview with Tony Hillerman (Alan Warhaftig interviews Tony Hillerman, DECEMBER 6, 2017, LA Review of Books) -OBIT: Tony Hillerman (AP) -OBIT: Tony Hillerman, 83; Penned Navajo Series,/a> (Joe Holley, October 28, 2008, Washington Post) -OBIT: Tony Hillerman, Novelist, Dies at 83 (Marilyn Stasio, Oct. 27, 2008, NY Times) -PROFILE: No mystery to Tony Hillerman's success as a best-selling author (Bob Hoover, 10/31/1998, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) -ESSAY: TONY HILLERMAN AND THE INVENTION OF JIM CHEE: Joe Leaphorn, older and sophisticated, needed a new foil—one younger, more interested in tradition, and more inquisitive. (JAMES MCGRATH MORRIS, 10/14/21, CrimeReads) - -ESSAY: TONY HILLERMAN: A CRIME READER’S GUIDE TO THE CLASSICS: On the Richly Sensory Mystery Novels of the Navajo Tribal Police (NEIL NYREN, 6/07/19, Crime Reads) -TRIBUTE: TONY HILLERMAN: AN OPEN BOOK: He may have been a master mystery writer, but to those who knew him, what you saw was what you got—a man of the people who wore many hats well. An oral history of a New Mexico hero. (Charles C. Poling, New Mexico Magazine) -REVIEW ESSAY: TONY HILLERMAN'S CROSS-CULTURAL MYSTERY NOVELS (Deborah Stead, Aug. 16, 1988, NY Times) -ESSAY: I Want to Believe: Tony Hillerman’s long-running mystery series is an underrecognized influence on The X-Files (Manisha Aggarwal-Schifellite, The Oyster Review) -ESSAY: Senses of Place: Atlantic contributors reflect on intersections of books and travel. (WILLIAM LANGEWIESCHE, JANUARY 1999, The Atlantic) -REVIEW ARCHIVES: Tony Hillerman (Kirkus) -REVIEW ARCHIVES: Tony Hillerman (Publishers Weekly) -REVIEW: of Skinwalkers by Tony Hillerman (Kirkus) -REVIEW: of Skinwalkers (Greg Herren, Reviewing the Evidence) -REVIEW: of Skinwalkers (Mystery Reviews 2017) -REVIEW: of Skinwalkers (The First Gates) -REVIEW: of Skinwalkers (Reader of a Certain Age) -REVIEW: of Skinwalkers (People) -REVIEW: of Skinwalkers (Alicia Karen Elkins, Rambles) -REVIEW: of Skinwalkers (D.G. Hudson - Rainforest Writing) -REVIEW: of Skinwalkers (Philosophy Blog) -REVIEW: of Skinwalkers (Publishers Weekly) -REVIEW: of sacred Clowns by Tony Hillerman (Ronald Shook, Western American Literature) FILM: -FILMOGRAPHY: Tony Hillerman (IMDB) -FILMOGRAPHY: Skinwalkers (Rotten Tomatoes) -VIDEO: Coyote Waits (2003) (PBS: Mystery, You Tube) -VIDEO: Skinwalker-Curse of the Shaman (2005) (PBS: Mystery, YouTube) -FILMOGRAPHY: Skinwalkers (IMDB) -ARTICLE: The bestseller they couldn’t sell (SUSAN KING, NOV. 17, 2002, LA TIMES) -ARTICLE: Joe Leaphorn is not his old self but Tony Hillerman is happy with ‘Skinwalkers’ (Native Arts) -TV REVIEW: Skinwalkers (Caryn James, NY Times) -TV REVIEW: Skinwalkers (ANN HODGES, Houston Chronicle) Book-related and General Links: -ESSAY : Portraits of the West from five of its finest authors : Ship Rock (Tony Hillerman, November 1998, Sunset Magazine) -EXCERPT : First Chapter of The First Eagle -BOOK SITE : The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century Edited by Tony Hillerman (FSB Associates) -INTERVIEW : An Online Q&A With Tony Hillerman (PBS) -INTERVIEW : Talking With Tony Hillerman (Mystery Guild) -INTERVIEW : Sitting down and setting out with Tony Hillerman (ROSEMARY ZIBART, Book Page) -PROFILE : No mystery to Tony Hillerman's success as a best-selling author (Bob Hoover, October 31, 1998, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) -The Times and The Irish Times : 100 Masters of Crime : Tony Hillerman (Clare Library) -A Tony Hillerman Navajo Glossary (Gwyneth and Jack Vaughn) -Tony Hillerman (Stop You're Killing Me) -Tony Hillerman (Bastulli Mystery Library) -Hillerman country! (The Unofficial Tony Hillerman Homepage) -Hillerman Country (Mystery Net) -ESSAY : Sense of Place ( WILLIAM LANGEWIESCHE, Atlantic Monthly) -ARCHIVES : hillerman (Salon) -ARCHIVES : "tony hillerman" (Find Articles) -REVIEW : of Finding Moon (1995) (David Walton, Detroit News) -REVIEW : of The Fallen Man (1996) (Marilyn Stasio, NY Times Book Review) -REVIEW : of The First Eagle (1998) (Marilyn Stasio, NY Times Book Review) -REVIEW : of The First Eagle, by Tony Hillerman (Tom Danehy, Tucson Weekly) -REVIEW : of The First Eagle (Suzette Lalime Davidson, Salon) -REVIEW : of The First Eagle (Val McDermid, Tangled Web uk) -REVIEW : of The First Eagle (Mostly Fiction) -REVIEW : of Hunting Badger (1999) (Marilyn Stasio, NY Times Book Review) -REVIEW : of Hunting Badger (Brian Ritterspak, Crime Time Online uk) -AWARD : 1973 Dance Hall of the Dead - Tony Hillerman (Edgar Award) FILMS :
Other Navajo mysteries by Tony Hillerman :
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