The Fallen Man (A Leaphorn and Chee Novel, 12) Mass Market Paperback – May 25, 2010

These books are so good. I read one after another. The characters are so intriguing.

I enjoy these mysteries about murder on Navajo land and the west. They introduce traditions that I hope are well research. This book has both Chee and Leaphorn in it but also introduced a new detective and a love interest to Chee.

Tony Hillerman released 18 novels in the Leaphorn/Chee series periodically over almost four decades from his first, The Blessing Way/1970, to The Shape Shifter/2006. Hillerman died at 83 in 2008 but in the 90’s he already appeared to be in questionable health. In the pre-digital era they had this thing called hard bound books where the custom was to have a full page, high quality, obviously posed photo on the back flap of the dust jacket covering the book. My wife and I were living in Hillerman's Indian Country at the time and were dedicated fans having already noticed his seeming deterioration from one photo to another. We would study each new release’s shot like Kremlinologists with their Mayday photos of the Soviet leadership parked in the reviewing stands. And parked is the right word when we saw one release. In it a pale, weak looking Hillerman was shown in a desert setting seemingly propped up against a large rock that looked like it was the only thing holding him up. We pegged him in our minds as soon to be deceased but he was tougher than he looked and had a decade and several novels left in him. That said The Fallen Man (#12/1996) presages an impending decline in the timelessness of his work with only The First Eagle (#13/1998) and Hunting Badger (#14/1999) plus an honorable mention for his last Leaphorn/Chee entry, The Shape Shifter (#18/2006) continuing the standard the best of his previous work embodied. The Fallen Man opens with the discovery of a mountain climber’s corpse near the summit of the famous Shiprock. The scene quickly shifts to the trials and tribulations of Jim Chee who is engaged to an obviously inappropriate Janet Pete, who is an east coast preppie, museum going, classical concert attending, buyer of modern art. In stark contrast, Chee is the classic innocent, raised in a sheep camp and the traditional ways of his tribe which he still does his best to honor. However trying to impress Pete has lead Chee to put his dream of being a healer in the tradition of his people on hold and instead accept a promotion to Acting Lieutenant, heading up an investigation unit. This does have the saving grace of introducing us to a budding new arrival, Officer Bernadette Manuelito, who quickly becomes a series regular. Tasked with investigating rustling you know Chee will eventually bump into Joe Leaphorn who is going stir crazy with his wife recently passed away and only a few months into his retirement. Fortune smiles with a lawyer hiring him for some fact finding which will be Leaphorn's initial foray as a private detective in the future. For aficionados of the interaction between these two leads watching the changed, almost arrogant Leaphorn of the past turning tentative and less demanding with Chee is a subtle treat for the reader as the relationship morphs into one with more equality as Leaphorn's respect for Chee grows while Chee gains confidence. Classic Hillerman slow windup to a faster paced satisfying ending. Beguiling world building, standout characters and lots of heart make this a book worth rereading every few years.$7.99 Kindle book price divided by Amazon typical read time of 4 hours, 41 minutes=$1.71average hourly reading cost

I’ve recently become interested in reading books with Native American characters. However, I had never read anything by Tony Hillerman until now.The Fallen Man is book twelve of Hillerman’s Leaphorn and Chee series, but I found it worked as a stand-alone novel.There are two mysteries to unfold. The first begins when climbers find human remains on Shiprock or Tse Bit’ a’i in the Navajo language. It turns out the skeleton belonged to a man who had vanished over a decade earlier. Did he fall to his death or was it murder?Retired Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn is hired by the man’s family to investigate. When a Navajo guide dies from a sniper’s bullet, Leaphorn becomes convinced the incidents are related. He had worked the missing person’s case years earlier, so he has a vested interest in solving the crime.Acting Lieutenant Jim Chee has his own issues to deal with. His captain wants him to investigate a string of cattle thefts in the area. He has to deal with Dick Finch, a New Mexico brand inspector. Finch is arrogant and rubs Chee in the wrong way. Chee is determined, with the help of Officer Bernadette Manuelito to learn the identity of the rustler before Finch does.The story is well-paced and keeps the reader in suspense. While this was my first introduction to the main characters, I had no problems connecting with them. After reading The Fallen Man, I’m interested in the other books of the series.

Good book

Just like the previous entry in Tony Hillerman's "Leaphorn & Chee" series ("Sacred Clowns"), I'm really rating "The Fallen Man" at 3-1/2 stars instead of the Very Good 4 stars out of 5 showing here. For the positives, once again Hillerman's got Leaphorn and Chee each pulling on their own threads until they finally meet up in the middle, wonderful settings, nice descriptions, bad guys getting what's coming to them, etc.. For the negatives, again, just like the previous book, Hillerman has given us just too much of Jim Chee's personal pain. At least in this book, it appears that Chee has finally received enough blows to the head with blunt instruments to actually notice that his love life is not going as he expects it to be going. If we're lucky, in the next book, Chee will figure out on which side of the fence he should actually be sowing his oats. But, I guess, just like in the last book, it makes for good philosophy.I'd also like to mention that this book seems to have a few minor inconsistencies in actions, personalities, and settings that bothered me. They're very minor: one example is in the first chapter where Hillerman's describing the sunset from Ship Rock. Essentially, he's got the Fall sun setting in the northwest when it should be setting in the southwest part of the sky.Hillerman's "Leaphorn & Chee" novels are:1.  The Blessing Way 2.  Dance Hall of the Dead 3.  Listening Woman 4.  People of Darkness 5.  The Dark Wind 6.  The Ghostway (Jim Chee Novels) 7.  Skinwalkers 8.  A Thief of Time 9.  Talking God 10.  Coyote Waits 11. Sacred Clowns: Novel, A12. The Fallen Man13. The First Eagle14. Hunting Badger15. The Wailing Wind16. The Sinister Pig17. Skeleton Man18. The Shape Shifter

Tony Hillerman never fails to please and this one was a scorcher. The service of the provider was excellent and I was pleased all round. I cant recommend Hillerman enough. I've got all of them.

Wonderfully written by Tony Hillerman and expressively read by Gill Silverbird - you can almost "feel" the scenery and the atmosphere. One of my favourite audio books on a long drive - the others are all Hillerman's, too!

Another great text

Kletterer finden in luftiger Höhe ein Skelett am Ship Rock, und der pensionierte Ermittler Joe Leaphorn glaubt, dass es sich dabei um den 11 Jahre lang vermissten Erben Hal Breedlove handelt. Dessen Witwe trat das Erbe an, und sie und ihr Bruder bewirtschaften seither eine große Ranch. Doch die Breedlove-Familie glaubt an falsches Spiel und setzt Leaphorn als Detektiv darauf an, einen Mord an Hal nachzuweisen. Zugleich muss sich der zum Acting Lieutenant beförderte Jim Chee mit raffinierten Rinderdieben und einer eigensinnigen jungen Polizistin auseinandersetzen...Die Handlung ist spannend und clever aufgebaut und überrascht durch nette Wendungen. Jim Chees schwierige Beziehung zur schönen Janet Pete spiegelt den stets vorhandenen Konflikt zwischen der Navajo-Kultur und dem amerikanischen Way-of-Life auf bittersüße Weise wider. Und wie immer bekommen Exzentriker liebevoll Airtime vom Autor wie etwa der bereits verstorbene Vater von Lucy Sam, der sich durch sein Tagebuch so wunderbar in die Handlung einbringen darf.5 Sterne für einen rundum gelungenen Roman.

Tony Hillerman is a favorite author. Love his Navajo Police series with Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn.