Spider Woman's Daughter, Hillerman - B

                     Between 1970 and 2006, Tony Hillerman wrote eighteen novels featuring Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn of the Naval Tribal Police. We read and loved most of them. They received innumerable awards and brilliantly introduced us to the world of the Four Corners where the Navajo nation resides on a massive reservation situated mostly in Arizona and New Mexico. The cultural education was priceless. I just learned that his daughter, Anne, began a continuation of the series a decade ago. 

                   The young officer who Leaphorn trained is Jim Chee, still on the force and married to Officer Bernadette (Bernie) Manuelito. One sunny morning, long retired Joe is breakfasting with the old gang and is the first to leave the diner. Bernie follows him outside only to see him shot in the head by someone who drives off. Both the Navajo Police and the FBI begin to investigate. They learn that Joe was doing some insurance/valuation work for a local museum. Although the shooter used a car that leads both agencies to investigate a false lead, Jim eventually deduces it's the museum director who is behind it all. The director almost does in Jim and Bernie, but of course, justice is done, and the principals survive to move on. Happy to have some old friends back.

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