Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 7/8/2022 + 1229 more book reviews

I have been watching and enjoying the TV series Dark Winds which is based on Tony Hillerman's Leaphorn and Chee novels set on the Navajo reservation. When Tony Hillerman died in 2008, his daughter Anne continued with writing the series. This is the fourth book she has written and the 22nd overall book in the series.

In this book, Leaphorn is now retired and acts as an advisor. Jim Chee is married to Tribal Police Officer Bernadette (Bernie) Manuelito and they both work out of the Tribal Police Substation in Shiprock, New Mexico. Bernie is really the main focus of the novel as she travels to lecture at a character-building program for at-risk teens. When she gets there, one of the girls, Annie, is missing but returns shortly from the Malpais wilderness traumatized. And the person sent to find her is still missing. Annie had come upon a cave used as a burial site for the ancients and discovered some old bones. But what happened to the instructor who went out to locate her? In the mean time, Chee is in Santa Fe attending a week of law enforcement training and is also checking on Darlene, Bernie's wayward sister who is enrolled in an art school seminar. Chee is also trying to find out what happened to a man who supposedly went somewhere to work on a ranch. The story goes on to focus on missing Indian artifacts, drugs, police corruption, and possible murders.

I did enjoy this one but did not find it as compelling as the Tony Hillerman novel, LISTENING WOMAN, that I recently read and that is the basis of the Dark Winds TV series. I really need to go back and read more of the original series and maybe at some point read more of Anne's followup novels.

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