When a man with a fake ID is found murdered on the Navajo reservation people immediately think he was investigating the oil pipelines. When Jim Chee starts looking into it he finds out drug smugglers and politicians are involved and Bernadette Manuelito, now working as a Border Control Agent is right in the middle of a big cover-up.
Tony Hillerman has a decidedly readable style. I especially like his way of making each character feel like an old friend. As soon as Chee shows up I know just what he’s going to say and I’ve only read three our four of his books and most of those more than ten years ago.
There is a peaceful joviality to them that is missing in much modern fiction. They are competent people who also happen to be nice.
Hillerman wrote books for years – probably decades – and there is a peaceful kind of comfort to reading his books that feels much like sitting down in a very large, very soft chair after a long day.