For those missing Tony Hillerman and Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, this is your book. A successful sequel by Hillerman's daughter, Ann Hillerman. And surprise, Officer Bernie Manuelito finally gets her chance to show her cop chops. She has them. I think the daughter channels the father and his Navajo characters from the Four Corners world superbly. Enjoyed it thoroughly. You will too.
I hope she writes another Leaphorn and Chee mystery.

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Nice continuation of the Leaphorn/Chee novels, except now featuring Bernadette Manuelito. I thought Anne Hillerman did a good job picking up the characters where her dad left off. Manuelito is now married to Jim Chee, and back on the force of the Navajo Tribal Police. At an informal gathering at a restaurant one morning, Leaphorn walks out and is shot in the head by a disguised gunman, who quickly gets away. Leaphorn, barely alive, is rushed to hospital. Manuelito saw the whole thing happen and is racked by guilt; she thinks she should have been able to prevent it somehow. The search for the villain leads Manuelito and Chee to investigate Leaphorn's past cases, trying to find a lead. As you might expect, Hillerman puts in many references to her father's previous works, and the solution to this one lies within one book in particular. You don't have to have read the previous to enjoy this, but you'll know you're missing a number of references. I liked that Hillerman told the story solely from Manuelito's POV, and included the same sort of Navajo lore that's in her father's books. That said, it does feel a little forced when Chee and Manuelito are explaining things to each other, and the flirtation bits with the FBI agent seemed out of place. I think my enjoyment of it suffered just a little because I so recently concluded reading the entire series her father wrote. She isn't Tony Hillerman, but she's done well in his world, and I'll go on to read her others.

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