Hillerman

The Dark Wind (Jim Chee Novels)
$7.99
This was a great book and which I received from a really fast supplier. Would definitely do business with this seller again. I give an A+++++

Tony Hillerman's Landscape: On the Road with Chee and Leaphorn
$28.99
I'm Tony Hillerman's daughter, Anne, and I spent three years working on this book with photographer Don Strel, and Tony himself as
our consultant. We traveled and photographed many of the places Dad loved and wrote about. The final essay is a piece Tony wrote
for a book HarperCollins planned on why author's live where they do, a book they never published. I'm sorry my Dad wasn't around to
see the book, although he did see many of the beautiful photos. The places included range from well-known Hillerman Country landmarks like Shiprock and
Canyon de Chelly, to obscure locations like Baby Rocks. The text includes quotes from Dad's novels, often with Chee or Leaphorn describing the country
that we've photographed.

The Blessing Way
$9.99
This is the book for you. First off, the point of view was with two different characters from two different cultures. Hey, that's great. Lt. Joe Leaphorn seems like a good cop and Bergen McKee seems like a smart teacher. But you need more pages if you plan to really dig in and give me their characters - their fears, hopes, merits, flaws, dreams, pains, problems, so on. Also, the book kind of gives away the who but not the why or what or how and does not give it away till the last chapter. I didn't have a chance in figuring out the mystery. There was no thrills because one of the main characters kind of runs into the Bad Guys and, after that, how can there be suspense?
And when we do find out what is going on we can't help but feel that the clues just kind of dropped into the lap of the good guys. They were stuck and it is only luck that they figured out what was going on. Hack, they were not even close to stuck - they had no where to even start and they got lucky. Most of it bad luck but still just luck. Too much luck.
I'm sorry but this book is good for reading on a train or a jet or a car but don't waste a rainy day on it.

Mystery! Coyote Waits
$29.98
It's usually not cricket to compare a movie with the book it was based on, but in this case everything that made the book worthwhile was missing in the movie. What makes Hillerman's books so wonderful is that he portrays Navajo culture with such profound authenticity. But in this film, Hillerman's Navajo characters were transformed into cardboard cutouts, and the culture that Hillerman so skillfully conveyed was reduced to some flute music and close-ups of elders telling old myths. But, even the stereotyped image of the wrinkled elder in braids recounting the ways of the ancestors looked pretty good compared to the completely lifeless acting. Adam Beach was horribly miscast as the traditionalist Navajo, Jim Chee. He slurred his way through his lines and couldn't even muster one convincing scene. Sheila Tousey, as Emma, sounded like she was reading her lines from a prompter. Wes Studi, as Leaphorn, was marginally better, but he only had one facial expression--hard-boiled cop. (And Jim Chee only had one shirt...) I'm afraid even Graham Greene, that warhorse of Native American films, couldn't save this one.

On the positive side, the scenery was gorgeous.