Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 7/5/2022 + 1178 more book reviews

I have been watching and enjoying the TV series Dark Winds on AMC. When I found out that the first season of the series is based on Hillerman's LISTENING WOMAN, I ordered the book from a trading site online and I have really enjoyed reading it. This is the third novel in the Leaphorn & Chee series, however, Chee does not appear in this one. The story involves some cold cases that Leaphorn has been assigned to look into. One is the murder of an old man and a teenage girl who were being seen by a blind Navaho "listening woman" who talks about ghosts and witches. Then there is a robbery of an armored truck in Santa Fe with the loot being transported by helicopter deep into the vast Navaho reservation in Northern Arizona, New Mexico, and Southern Utah. The helicopter disappeared possibly within the reservation. So is this tied to the murder of the old man and the teenage girl? The old man's grandson arrives on the reservation after he received a letter from his grandfather but the timeframe does not seem to make it possible that the letter actually came from him. The grandson is a priest but could he also be involved in the armored truck heist? The FBI has tied the heist to a militant Indian group called the Buffalo Society. So what else are they planning?

This is actually the first Leaphorn novel that I have read although I have owned a few others that I got rid of before one of my moves. I did really enjoy this. I especially liked the descriptions of the Navaho life and the landscapes of the sandstone and canyons of the reservation. I grew up in Utah and have visited Southern Utah and Arizona and the vistas are very breathtaking.

The novel does have some of the same plot points as the Dark Winds TV series but the series did change and modify a lot of the story. There is still one episode left in the season which I am looking forward to watching and I hear it has been renewed for a second season. I will be watching it and I will definitely be reading more of the Leaphorn and Chee novels!

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