Cyndi J. (cyndij) reviewed on 8/27/2021 + 1031 more book reviews

Well...it's always nice to spend time with old fictional friends, but I think I'm not going on with this series. Lots of little things bothered me this time. Too many references to Leaphorn's past cases - I felt as though Anne Hillerman is trying to throw as many references as she can to her father's works in order to get newer readers to look them up. They're not organic to the story. But I do kind of like the current Leaphorn. I think Hillerman had a good idea going to focus on Manuelito, but this time around she seemed really unprofessional. Having Manuelito (temporarily) work for Chee set up a lot of tension, plus a number of ways the situation can be resolved later, but mostly it felt awkward. I figured out the villain, that was easy, and I enjoyed parts of it, but it seemed to me this novel could have been set anywhere. Maybe I'm not remembering them well but I feel that Tony Hillerman's books had uniquely Navajo experiences, and Anne Hillerman is not capturing that as well.

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