Book Review: Rock with Wings, by Anne Hillerman
The twentieth book in the Leaphorn/Chee series, or the second book in the Leaphorn/Chee/Manuelito series.
Harper, 2015, 322 pages
Navajo tribal cops Jim Chee and Bernadette Manuelito and their mentor, the legendary Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, investigate two perplexing cases in this exciting Southwestern mystery from the New York Times best-selling author of Spider Woman's Daughter.
Doing a good deed for a relative offers the perfect opportunity for Sergeant Jim Chee and his wife, Officer Bernie Manuelito, to get away from the daily grind of police work. But two cases will call them back from their short vacation and separate them - one near Shiprock and the other at iconic Monument Valley.
Chee follows a series of seemingly random and cryptic clues that lead to a missing woman, a coldblooded thug, and a mysterious mound of dirt and rocks that could be a grave site. Bernie has her hands full managing the fallout from a drug bust gone wrong, uncovering the origins of a fire in the middle of nowhere, and looking into an ambitious solar energy development with long-ranging consequences for Navajo land.
Under the guidance of their mentor, retired Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, Bernie and Chee will navigate unexpected obstacles and confront the greatest challenge yet to their skills, commitment, and courage.
As a long-time fan of Tony Hillerman (you can read my tribute to him here), I was ambivalent about his daughter, Anne Hillerman, taking over the Leaphorn/Chee series after his death. Some children of authors do become accomplished in their own right (Stephen King's son Joe Hill, for example), but generally speaking it's just not the same when someone's heir takes over.
The series was already getting quite long in the tooth when Mr. Hillerman passed away. Jim Chee was introduced in his fourth book, People of Darkness, which was published in 1980, so if the characters aged in real time, Chee would have to be in his 60s now. But we can forgive fictional characters who age in comic book years.
Anne's first Leaphorn/Chee book, Spider Woman's Daughter was... okay. About as good as one of her father's more mediocre entries in the series. She all but wrote Leaphorn out of the story in chapter one by literally putting him in a coma, and from then on it become more the Chee/Manuelito series, with Jim Chee and his wife Bernadette Manuelito taking center stage. In fairness, the "legendary" Lieutenant Leaphorn had mostly become a secondary character in Tony's last few books as well.
Rock with Wings is her second Leaphorn/Chee/Manuelito book. I was hoping it would be like returning to old friends again, but it was just... okay. Actually, it was more boring than Spider Woman's Daughter.
There are basically two parallel plots, as Chee and Manuelito spend most of the book separated performing their own investigations. Chee is sent to investigate a missing woman on a movie set. A production company is shooting a zombie movie on the rez, and somehow discovers a real grave site, which Chee suspects they staged for publicity. Meanwhile, Bernie is trying to track down the mystery of the guy who tried to bribe her when she pulled him over; all that was in the trunk of his car were some casks of dirt.
Oh, I know what you're thinking. No, it never gets that interesting. Instead, Chee and Manuelito chase leads and red herrings, interact with a revolving cast of shady characters, and get involved in slice-of-life dramas of the sort that Tony Hillerman inserted into his stories in a way that brought the Navajo Nation to life. Yet Anne Hillerman's filler scenes seem like just that, filler. Bernie's little sister is turning into a rebellious teenager with a drinking problem. Her mother is worried. Bernie thinks a lot about managing her responsibilities, the difficulties of being a good wife and daughter and sister, and also being a cop. Chee mostly thinks about his case and Bernie. Chee seems a little harder, meaner, and flatter than Tony ever wrote him. It is clear which character is Anne's favorite. They both continue to drop by to visit Joe Leaphorn, still recovering from his injuries in the previous book and sidelined as a character but kept around for long-time fans.
The climax was abrupt, with a villain who suddenly goes into full scenery-chewing Villainous Monologue mode, and frankly his motives seemed stupid to me.
Overall, this was an... okay book. Not bad, just nothing memorable or that would normally make me read the next one in the series.
Mostly I feel disappointed. I've fallen behind and apparently Anne Hillerman has written four or five more books in the series already, but I just don't think I need to keep going. These are her father's characters, and it's clear she writes with a genuine love of her father's legacy and the same respect he had for the Navajo, but... aside from the names and the nostalgia, there's just not enough here for the series to stand up on its own.
Also by Anne Hillerman: My review of Spider Woman's Daughter.
My complete list of book reviews.
Harper, 2015, 322 pages
Navajo tribal cops Jim Chee and Bernadette Manuelito and their mentor, the legendary Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, investigate two perplexing cases in this exciting Southwestern mystery from the New York Times best-selling author of Spider Woman's Daughter.
Doing a good deed for a relative offers the perfect opportunity for Sergeant Jim Chee and his wife, Officer Bernie Manuelito, to get away from the daily grind of police work. But two cases will call them back from their short vacation and separate them - one near Shiprock and the other at iconic Monument Valley.
Chee follows a series of seemingly random and cryptic clues that lead to a missing woman, a coldblooded thug, and a mysterious mound of dirt and rocks that could be a grave site. Bernie has her hands full managing the fallout from a drug bust gone wrong, uncovering the origins of a fire in the middle of nowhere, and looking into an ambitious solar energy development with long-ranging consequences for Navajo land.
Under the guidance of their mentor, retired Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, Bernie and Chee will navigate unexpected obstacles and confront the greatest challenge yet to their skills, commitment, and courage.
As a long-time fan of Tony Hillerman (you can read my tribute to him here), I was ambivalent about his daughter, Anne Hillerman, taking over the Leaphorn/Chee series after his death. Some children of authors do become accomplished in their own right (Stephen King's son Joe Hill, for example), but generally speaking it's just not the same when someone's heir takes over.
The series was already getting quite long in the tooth when Mr. Hillerman passed away. Jim Chee was introduced in his fourth book, People of Darkness, which was published in 1980, so if the characters aged in real time, Chee would have to be in his 60s now. But we can forgive fictional characters who age in comic book years.
Anne's first Leaphorn/Chee book, Spider Woman's Daughter was... okay. About as good as one of her father's more mediocre entries in the series. She all but wrote Leaphorn out of the story in chapter one by literally putting him in a coma, and from then on it become more the Chee/Manuelito series, with Jim Chee and his wife Bernadette Manuelito taking center stage. In fairness, the "legendary" Lieutenant Leaphorn had mostly become a secondary character in Tony's last few books as well.
Rock with Wings is her second Leaphorn/Chee/Manuelito book. I was hoping it would be like returning to old friends again, but it was just... okay. Actually, it was more boring than Spider Woman's Daughter.
There are basically two parallel plots, as Chee and Manuelito spend most of the book separated performing their own investigations. Chee is sent to investigate a missing woman on a movie set. A production company is shooting a zombie movie on the rez, and somehow discovers a real grave site, which Chee suspects they staged for publicity. Meanwhile, Bernie is trying to track down the mystery of the guy who tried to bribe her when she pulled him over; all that was in the trunk of his car were some casks of dirt.
Oh, I know what you're thinking. No, it never gets that interesting. Instead, Chee and Manuelito chase leads and red herrings, interact with a revolving cast of shady characters, and get involved in slice-of-life dramas of the sort that Tony Hillerman inserted into his stories in a way that brought the Navajo Nation to life. Yet Anne Hillerman's filler scenes seem like just that, filler. Bernie's little sister is turning into a rebellious teenager with a drinking problem. Her mother is worried. Bernie thinks a lot about managing her responsibilities, the difficulties of being a good wife and daughter and sister, and also being a cop. Chee mostly thinks about his case and Bernie. Chee seems a little harder, meaner, and flatter than Tony ever wrote him. It is clear which character is Anne's favorite. They both continue to drop by to visit Joe Leaphorn, still recovering from his injuries in the previous book and sidelined as a character but kept around for long-time fans.
The climax was abrupt, with a villain who suddenly goes into full scenery-chewing Villainous Monologue mode, and frankly his motives seemed stupid to me.
Overall, this was an... okay book. Not bad, just nothing memorable or that would normally make me read the next one in the series.
Mostly I feel disappointed. I've fallen behind and apparently Anne Hillerman has written four or five more books in the series already, but I just don't think I need to keep going. These are her father's characters, and it's clear she writes with a genuine love of her father's legacy and the same respect he had for the Navajo, but... aside from the names and the nostalgia, there's just not enough here for the series to stand up on its own.
Also by Anne Hillerman: My review of Spider Woman's Daughter.
My complete list of book reviews.