Song of the Lion A Leaphorn Chee Manuelito Novel Anne Hillerman Books
Download As PDF : Song of the Lion A Leaphorn Chee Manuelito Novel Anne Hillerman Books
New York Times Bestseller
A deadly bombing takes Navajo Tribal cops Bernadette Manuelito, Jim Chee, and their mentor, the legendary Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, back into the past to find a vengeful killer in this riveting Southwestern mystery from the bestselling author of Spider Woman’s Daughter and Rock with Wings.
When a car bomb kills a young man in the Shiprock High School parking lot, Officer Bernadette Manuelito discovers that the intended victim was a mediator for a multi-million-dollar development planned at the Grand Canyon.
But what seems like an act of ecoterrorism turns out to be something far more nefarious and complex. Piecing together the clues, Bernadette and her husband, Sergeant Jim Chee, uncover a scheme to disrupt the negotiations and inflame tensions between the Hopi and Dine tribes.
Retired Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn has seen just about everything in his long career. As the tribal police’s investigation unfolds, he begins to suspect that the bombing may be linked to a cold case he handled years ago. As he, Bernadette, and Chee carefully pull away the layers behind the crime, they make a disturbing discovery a meticulous and very patient killer with a long-simmering plan of revenge.
Writing with a clarity and grace that is all her own, Anne Hillerman depicts the beauty and mystery of Navajo Country and the rituals, myths, and customs of its people in a mystery that builds on and complements the beloved, bestselling mysteries of her acclaimed father, Tony Hillerman.
Song of the Lion A Leaphorn Chee Manuelito Novel Anne Hillerman Books
Sorry! Anne Hillerman really misses almost every mark in this effort. While the writing is clear, the major components of a good Leaphorn-Chee continuation series (even with a new focus on Bernie Manuelito as the protagonist) are sadly diluted and missing. First, the plot line. A dramatic bombing at a high-school basketball tournament is dragged (not developed) through a likely assault on a Tribal mediator working on another of the endlessly disputed projects regarding land use and protecting the sacred soil of Navajo-land. Except, it isn't really about any of this in the end. All the drama that ensues is, for the most part, a misdirection and the final resolution of the plot is woefully unsupportive of the build-up to the conclusion. At best, it's a C-minus story.The characters are not themselves, but caricatures of whom they used to be in the earlier works. Joe Leaphorn (the Legendary Lieutenant) is given a very minor presence, and since he suffered a traumatic brain injury in the first book of this series, Ms. Hillerman has still not come to grips with how to use him to advance the plot development. We see Joe struggling to communicate, preferring to use the written word, e.g. emails rather than speaking, to give advice and counsel. Because the character is now so limited and so peripheral, I wonder why Ms. Hillerman even includes him in the narrative. Nostalgia may be one motivation, I suppose.
Jim Chee really has never recovered from the change in authorship. Where once he was a reflective, perhaps sometimes brooding character, torn between adapting his desire to be a medicine man (Singer) with the realities of being a Navajo policeman, he's now given only a few limited dimensions: 1) he's got an assignment that he doesn't care for much because it involves politicians; 2) he doesn't like being away from Bernie. That's it for Jim.
Bernie's portrait is almost as dimensionless as Chee's, although as the protagonist she does have more facets that drive the plot forward. Like Chee in the earlier stories (including The Spider Woman's Daughter, Anne Hillerman's 1st novel in the series) Bernie was shown to be a reflective woman, struggling with how to be a Navajo policewoman, dealing with family, and torn between a "crush" and a "romance" with Jim Chee. In this novel, Bernie is pretty much "all-business" and the demands of the job push almost all the human intrigue of a normal life into the background.
I know this next comment is going to send the die-hard Hillerman afficionados over the top, but I have to say this particular book was redolent with the same themes as the Ella Clah series by Aimee and David Thorlo. As I read "Song of the Lion" I really did have trouble keeping a distinction between the characters of Bernie Manuelito and Ella Clah. That Shiprock is home to both heroines makes the comparison hard to miss, plus in this episode Bernie also receives a mountain lion fetish which parallels the badger fetish so prominent in the Thorlo's stories. The pacing of the stories also seem similar, to me.
Finally, maybe it's bad editing or typesetting (I've noticed more and more of this in several popular mystery thrillers) but I have to say that the clues that were dropped (including dropping the villain's name and his connection with the plot-- about half-way through the story) continues to show the struggles with plot development and story that plagues the two latest books by Anne Hillerman.
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Song of the Lion A Leaphorn Chee Manuelito Novel Anne Hillerman Books Reviews
So very disappointed. These are not Tony Hillerman's Chee and Leaphorn. The dialogue seems stitled and embarrassingly flip and pointless at times, the reflective Chee is gone...I agree with another review that said, "whenever has Chee told off someone he was protecting"! Mr. Hillerman had a way of unfolding a story and giving insight into the characters and the culture. Ann Hillerman's writing has a "lecturing,, opininionated" tone obviously related to things that "bug" her and she, unfortunately, to displaces and weave those personal views into the main characters, which just doesn't ring true to the "nature" they were originally given by Mr. Hillerman. That style of writing actually made the beloved main characters, Chee and Manualito, seem "unattractive" and "petty" at times. I will honor Tony Hillerman's books by not buying another Ann Hillerman. I did give Ms Hillerman a chance but, in my opimion, after 3 novels the characters are degraded to the point I just can't enjoy them any longer.
I've been a Tony Hillerman fan for over 20 years, and was thrilled when his daughter continued writing about Leaphorn and Chee. I've read her previous two books and while I felt the first one was not as polished as her father's works, I was just so happy to see the series continued that I enjoyed it immensely. Her second book was an improvement, but this one felt like a step backwards to me. One thing I really liked in Tony Hillerman's works was the influence of Navajo beliefs, and the mystical/spiritual elements in the stories the struggle Chee had with his ambition of becoming a hataali while also being a cop, how his beliefs in things like chindi affected him on the job, the tension between the traditional, spiritual beliefs Chee held vs. Leaphorn's more scientific/factual perspective, frequently stories centered around mystical themes like skinwalkers, and cultural issues. I know there was a little of that in this story with the nashdoitsoh/cougar, but it seemed a little superficial compared to how much time was spent on the eco-political issues. I also miss the love of the landscape that came through in Tony's work. (I even visited the area on vacation largely because I wanted to see Window Rock and the areas described in the books.) Again, I know there was some of that here, but for some reason it didn't carry the same depth for me. I frequently found myself struggling to keep track of all the minor characters at the forum to discuss the proposed GC development, and that complexity became distracting. I like how Anne has been developing Bernie's character, and I always loved Chee and Leaphorn. Unfortunately, I felt like Chee was lacking in depth in this book – like he was just going through the motions of his job and role as husband. I did enjoy reading about Leaphorn's struggle and slow progress with his disability, I thought there was good character development there. I applaud Anne for her hard work, and hope she continues writing about these favorite characters. I know she's got big shoes to fill, and at the same time she is not her father, and her work has to be her own. On the other hand, to pick up these same characters, and have all of us Tony fans tagging along, there are expectations- things that made us love these characters and the land they live in, please keep working on that. And maybe bring more of the Navajo spiritual influence back in, that added a depth that I miss now, it gave things a "spooky" feel at times, and it was a great/respectful way of offering a window into the beliefs of the Navajo people which I really enjoyed.
Side Note Having bought the first edition, I notice a lot of typos. Not a reflection on the author, but seems unprofessional on the part of the publisher.
Sorry! Anne Hillerman really misses almost every mark in this effort. While the writing is clear, the major components of a good Leaphorn-Chee continuation series (even with a new focus on Bernie Manuelito as the protagonist) are sadly diluted and missing. First, the plot line. A dramatic bombing at a high-school basketball tournament is dragged (not developed) through a likely assault on a Tribal mediator working on another of the endlessly disputed projects regarding land use and protecting the sacred soil of Navajo-land. Except, it isn't really about any of this in the end. All the drama that ensues is, for the most part, a misdirection and the final resolution of the plot is woefully unsupportive of the build-up to the conclusion. At best, it's a C-minus story.
The characters are not themselves, but caricatures of whom they used to be in the earlier works. Joe Leaphorn (the Legendary Lieutenant) is given a very minor presence, and since he suffered a traumatic brain injury in the first book of this series, Ms. Hillerman has still not come to grips with how to use him to advance the plot development. We see Joe struggling to communicate, preferring to use the written word, e.g. emails rather than speaking, to give advice and counsel. Because the character is now so limited and so peripheral, I wonder why Ms. Hillerman even includes him in the narrative. Nostalgia may be one motivation, I suppose.
Jim Chee really has never recovered from the change in authorship. Where once he was a reflective, perhaps sometimes brooding character, torn between adapting his desire to be a medicine man (Singer) with the realities of being a Navajo policeman, he's now given only a few limited dimensions 1) he's got an assignment that he doesn't care for much because it involves politicians; 2) he doesn't like being away from Bernie. That's it for Jim.
Bernie's portrait is almost as dimensionless as Chee's, although as the protagonist she does have more facets that drive the plot forward. Like Chee in the earlier stories (including The Spider Woman's Daughter, Anne Hillerman's 1st novel in the series) Bernie was shown to be a reflective woman, struggling with how to be a Navajo policewoman, dealing with family, and torn between a "crush" and a "romance" with Jim Chee. In this novel, Bernie is pretty much "all-business" and the demands of the job push almost all the human intrigue of a normal life into the background.
I know this next comment is going to send the die-hard Hillerman afficionados over the top, but I have to say this particular book was redolent with the same themes as the Ella Clah series by Aimee and David Thorlo. As I read "Song of the Lion" I really did have trouble keeping a distinction between the characters of Bernie Manuelito and Ella Clah. That Shiprock is home to both heroines makes the comparison hard to miss, plus in this episode Bernie also receives a mountain lion fetish which parallels the badger fetish so prominent in the Thorlo's stories. The pacing of the stories also seem similar, to me.
Finally, maybe it's bad editing or typesetting (I've noticed more and more of this in several popular mystery thrillers) but I have to say that the clues that were dropped (including dropping the villain's name and his connection with the plot-- about half-way through the story) continues to show the struggles with plot development and story that plagues the two latest books by Anne Hillerman.
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