Listening Woman Mass Market Paperback – January 1, 2010

Listening Woman was the third of the Leaphorn/Chee novels that Tony Hillerman wrote and he was still fleshing out his world building. The first half reads like typical Leaphorn/Chee plot line with lots of local color, plenty of Indian lore, and Joe Leaphorn interacting with various colorful local characters before kicking off into an almost James Bondian last half with cascading events for big stakes and many lives working against a countdown taken to the wire. Placed at the midway point I particularly enjoyed the initial walk on to stage of the old grizzled trading post owner who sips his whisky from a coke glass while rocking in the back room of his store and filling Leaphorn in on all the ins and outs of local rez gossip and culture. He will appear sporodically throughout the series and as Joe Leaphorn goes through personal life traumas and the store owner watches the business at his store dwindle to near nothing as times change they realize they have by that strange working of human chemistry become friends. Over the series this relationship between what eventually becomes two lonely old men is handled with the compassion and humanity that brings me back to Tony Hillerman's work time and again.

Tony Hillerman is known for a whole series of mystery/suspense novels set in the Navajo country of New Mexico, the so-called Four Corners region, which overlaps into Utah and Arizoma. His chief characters are Lt. Joe Leaphorn, and Sgt. Jim Chee, both Navajos, and members of the Navajo Tribal Police. Leaphorn appeared first, for several books, then Chee, and finally the two began functioning as a team. Some fifteen novels are listed in the Forward.I found “Listening Woman” to be a fairly representative sample of Hillerman’s work. The first chapters provided us not only with the beginnings of the story itself but also with an introduction to Navajo customs and beliefs as well as the poverty and ill health in which they still live. The latter half was at bottom a cops-and-robbers pursuit by Leaphorn (Chee was not yet with us) of a vicious set of criminals who enfolded their thievery in robes of righteousness - revenge for past wrongs against all the tribes. The action, much of it in the dark and underground, takes place in the rugged landscape of cliffs, mesas, and caves near Lake Powell. I found it exciting, suspenseful, and paradoxically too confusing, ultimately, to keep me interested. Too much action for action’s sake. Also, Leaphorn, the smart, decent, straight-arrow protagonist, never really came alive for me. To be just, he got more interesting as the books progressed.Nevertheless, the work is a good read. Four stars.

Hillerman is a master of the craft, who captures the beauty, desolation, loneliness, and magnificence of the desert Southwest, while weaving excellent mysteries wrapped around the culture and beliefs of the Navajo and neighboring peoples. He does not tread heavily over the subject of the clash of their cultures with white culture, but presents it with care and consideration. The result is a great yarn, a lovely tour of the Southwest, and an education about these First Nations. I've read all his novels, as well as his autobiography, and am now, after many years rereading them. That said, don't bother with daughter Ann's sequels. She may share his name, but not his talent.

I am a fan of Tony Hillerman and had read most of his books years ago. However, this one didn't ring a bell so I decided to buy it and give it a try.As I read along, nothing rang as familiar and so it was fun reading a book, by a known writer, that was new for me. At least at first.Joe Leaphorn, of the Navajo Tribal Police, is the protagonist. He is tasked with finding the killers of an old man and a young girl, and in the process is nearly run over by a man, with gold-rimmed glasses, who has a massive dog in his vehicle.In his search for the killer, whom he assumes is "Goldrims," as Leaphorn calls him, he comes upon a young white girl who is trying to find the man she fell in love with in Rome, who turns out to be the grandson of the murdered man.All the while there is a plan by Goldrims to avenge the long-ago deaths of 11 Indian children by kidnapping 11 boy scouts and three of their adult leaders.While it is not a masterpiece, there are several twists and turns in the book, and it MOSTLY kept me interested throughout.However, there is one really glaring problem with the book that almost made me put it down and not finish it. In the edition that I have, on page 178, Hillerman describes some battles that he gives credit only to the Kiowa. He even goes so far as to call them the "Lords of the Plains."I am a full-blood Comanche. It is my People that were the Lords of the Plains, not the Kiowa.Hillerman brings up the Battle of Palo Duro Canyon. While there were some Kiowas and Cheyenne involved, it was, by far, a Comanche battle. The horses slaughtered in the battle were primarily Comanche horses.Hillerman, I assume, knew his Navajo traditions and history, and in fact, the forward included in this edition was written by Peter MacDonald, the former Chairman of the Navajo Nation, where a "Special Friend of the People" Award was given to Hillerman. Clearly, he knew the Navajo subjects of which he wrote.But he was sadly lacking in the history of other Peoples.I did finish the book, though. I didn't really care for the ending. His later books are much better, and I'm glad I didn't read this one first because I doubt I would have read others as a result of the disappointments in this one.

Ein Doppelmord geschieht, als eine blinde Schamanin die Geister befrägt - und Joe Leaphorns Ermittlungen führen ihn zu einer gewissenlosen Verbrecherbande tief in den Canyons bei Lake Powell...Der Krimi ist stimmig und spannend. Besonders gut hat mir Leaphorns nächtliche Klettereinlage in einem der Canyons gefallen; die Topographie erwacht hier grandios zum Leben, wenngleich ich kaum glauben konnte, was Leaphorn hier des Nachts alles an Kletterei bewältigen kann ;-) Trotzdem 5 Sterne!

Pure joy all the way. Budget your time with this one; you won't want to put it down until you're finished. Hillerman at his glorious best.

An den Krimis von Tony Hillerman schätze ich das bedächige Tempo, die Landschaftsschilderungen und vor allem die Einblicke in und Bezüge zur Navajo-Religion und-Mathologie und zur Geschichte der Indianer in den USA. Das alles findet sich auch in dieser gewohnt gut erzählten Geschichte, aber gegen Ende nimmt dann die - vielleicht verkaufsfördernde - Action und Brutalität doch etwas überhand. Es gibt bessere Krimis von Tony H.

Wonderful

everything ok