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Book Review of Skinwalkers (Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee)

Skinwalkers (Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee)
cyndij avatar reviewed on + 1032 more book reviews


The seventh book in the series, but the first book where Navajo police officers Sgt Leaphorn and Jim Chee meet up and work together. Leaphorn is spending a lot of time looking at three unsolved homicides on the reservation. Someone fires a shotgun into Chee's mobile home in the middle of the night, attempting to kill him. The incidents are connected and it once again has to do with persons suspected of witchcraft, aka skinwalkers. Hillerman has two great characters here - Leaphorn very methodical, very analytical, spending a lot of time thinking about how pieces fit into the puzzle. Chee spends more time talking to people, trying to shake something loose. Both of them using sudden flashes of insight to solve the crime. As always there is the vastness of the Navajo reservation, the aridity suddenly cut with violent storms. I loved how Chee's awareness of the stray cat told him what was happening around him. No need to have read any of the others to enjoy this one, but they all deserve to be read.