The Fallen Man by Tony Hillerman

Description

On Halloween, a skeleton is found wedged near the apex of 1,700-foot-high Shiprock, one of the holiest places in Navajo religion. Baffled in his attempts to determine the skeleton's identity, Jim Chee is relieved when his old mentor, the newly retired Joe Leaphorn, shows up with a solid lead. Ten years before, Leaphorn had worked on a missing person case that involved a man who had disappeared while vacationing with his wife near the monolith. He had never been able to find the body — until now. His missing person, Hal Breedlove, and Chee's mysterious skeleton are one and the same.

Before they can celebrate closing their respective cases, however, the plot takes a twist. An old Navajo guide, the last man who saw Breedlove alive is seriously wounded by a sniper in the desert, and Chee and Leaphorn begin to suspect that Breedlove's death was murder. Renewing their uneasy partnership, they begin an investigation that takes them through a tangled web of intrigue and deceit and culminates in a spectacular snowbound climax when a colossal blizzard hits the reservation just as they're about to close in on the killer.

With its ingenious plot, impeccable pacing, gripping evocations of the Southwest's harsh beauty and unique insights into Navajo culture, “The Fallen Man” is Hillerman at his best.

Editorial Review

“They sat for a while, engulfed by sunlight, cool air and silence. A raven planed down from the rim, circled around a cottonwood, landed on a Russian olive across the canyon floor and perched, waiting for them to die.”

Nobody in the world could have written that paragraph but Tony Hillerman. Two old men sit, surrounded by the natural beauty of Canyon de Chelly, talking about death. The fact that one of the men is Joe Leaphorn, (the Legendary Lieutenant, as his younger colleague Jim Chee irreverently but accurately calls him behind his back) means that something serious has happened–a crime in some way connected to the Navajo people. But Leaphorn has retired from the Navajo Tribal Police, and the only person dead so far is a rich Anglo named Hal Breedlove, who fell while trying to climb Ship Rock 11 years before. Chee is busy on another, more prosaic matter, but he can't resist helping his thorny mentor on Leaphorn's first case as a private detective. The Fallen Man is brisk, beautiful, funny, and poignant–as good a place as any for first-timers to plunge into Hillerman Country. Then they can catch up on past triumphs with Three Joe Leaphorn Mysteries (The Blessing Way/Dance Hall of the Dead/Listening Woman) and Three Jim Chee Mysteries (People of Darkness/The Dark Wind/The Ghostway).