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Leaphorn & Chee #27
Lost Birds
Win a free print copy of this book!
0 days and 05:12:04
25 copies available
U.S. only
“Anne Hillerman is a star.”—J. A. Jance, New York Times bestselling author
From New York Times bestselling author Anne Hillerman, a thrilling and moving chapter in the Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito series involving several emotionally complex cases that will test the detectives in different ways.
Joe Leaphorn may be long retired from the Navajo Tribal Police, but his detective skills are still sharp, honed by his work as a private detective. His experience will be essential to solve a compelling new finding the birth parents of a woman who was raised by a bilagáana family but believes she is Diné based on one solid clue, an old photograph with a classic Navajo child’s blanket. Leaphorn discovers that his client’s adoption was questionable, and her adoptive family not what they seem. His quest for answers takes him to an old trading post and leads him to a deadly cache of long-buried family secrets.
As that case grows more complicated, Leaphorn receives an unexpected call from a person he met decades earlier. Cecil Bowleg’s desperation is clear in his voice, but just as he begins to explain, the call is cut off by an explosion and Cecil disappears. True to his nature, Leaphorn is determined to find the truth even as the situation grows dangerous. Investigation of the explosion falls in part to Officer Bernadette Manuelito, who discovers an unexpected link to Cecil’s missing wife.
Bernie also is involved in a troubling investigation of her an elderly weaver whose prize-winning sheep have been ruthlessly killed by feral dogs.
Exploring the emotionally complex issues of adoption of Indigenous children by non-native parents, Anne Hillerman delivers another thought-provoking, gripping mystery that brings to life the vivid terrain of the American Southwest, its people, and the lore and traditions that make it distinct.
From New York Times bestselling author Anne Hillerman, a thrilling and moving chapter in the Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito series involving several emotionally complex cases that will test the detectives in different ways.
Joe Leaphorn may be long retired from the Navajo Tribal Police, but his detective skills are still sharp, honed by his work as a private detective. His experience will be essential to solve a compelling new finding the birth parents of a woman who was raised by a bilagáana family but believes she is Diné based on one solid clue, an old photograph with a classic Navajo child’s blanket. Leaphorn discovers that his client’s adoption was questionable, and her adoptive family not what they seem. His quest for answers takes him to an old trading post and leads him to a deadly cache of long-buried family secrets.
As that case grows more complicated, Leaphorn receives an unexpected call from a person he met decades earlier. Cecil Bowleg’s desperation is clear in his voice, but just as he begins to explain, the call is cut off by an explosion and Cecil disappears. True to his nature, Leaphorn is determined to find the truth even as the situation grows dangerous. Investigation of the explosion falls in part to Officer Bernadette Manuelito, who discovers an unexpected link to Cecil’s missing wife.
Bernie also is involved in a troubling investigation of her an elderly weaver whose prize-winning sheep have been ruthlessly killed by feral dogs.
Exploring the emotionally complex issues of adoption of Indigenous children by non-native parents, Anne Hillerman delivers another thought-provoking, gripping mystery that brings to life the vivid terrain of the American Southwest, its people, and the lore and traditions that make it distinct.
300 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 23, 2024
About the author
Anne Hillerman
24 books1,531 followersAnne Hillerman's newest book,"Spider Woman's Daughter" debuted at number 10 on the New York Times Best Seller list. The novel continues her father Tony Hillerman's popular Jim Chee/Joe Leaphorn series. The book followed "Tony Hillerman's Landscape: On the Road with Chee and Leaphorn," with photos by Don Strel of the country the renown mystery author visited in his novels. Her cookbook, "Santa Fe Flavors: Best Restaurants and Recipes" received the New Mexico Book Award for the best cookbook of 2009. Anne's other books include "Gardens of Santa Fe," "Ride the Wind, USA to Africa," and "Children's Guide to Santa Fe." When she's not writing, Anne enjoys cooking, writing restaurant reviews for the Albuquerque Journal, and skiing.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 491 reviews
April 30, 2024
In
Lost Birds,
Anne Hillerman continues the series created by her father Tony Hillerman featuring Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. However, she adds a third main character, Bernadette Manuelito. While Joe is now retired from the Navajo Tribal Police, he continues to hone his detective skills as a private investigator. He’s hired by Stella Brown to help her find her birth parents. She was adopted as a baby by non-native parents and only has a few clues that she may have Navajo origins. Meanwhile, he takes on a second case when Cecil Bowleg calls. His wife has been missing almost three weeks and isn’t answering her phone or responding to texts. During Cecil’s call, Joe hears an explosion and the call is dropped. The explosion investigation is handled by the FBI, New Mexico state police, as well as tribal police Officer Bernadette. Bernadette and her husband Jim Chee are also with family issues, as well as Joe’s friend and housemate Louisa Bourbonette.
The novel has several subplots and moves points of view several times, but the flow seemed to work relatively well. There are several twists and a couple of surprises. The characterization is well-done in this crime novel and mystery. Additionally, the world-building is excellent. My biggest quibble is that some of the subplots were wrapped up rather quickly. I wanted a little more depth to the resolutions and one subplot wasn’t resolved at all.
As usual, there are several topics woven throughout the novel that give readers an appreciation of Navajo life and culture. Some are wonderful and others aren’t. Weaving, elder care, family, education, poverty, feral dogs, adoption law, and much more are topics of interest.
Overall, this complex and intriguing mystery kept me entertained and engaged. There’s a glossary of Navajo terms at the back of the book that is good to have handy. Additionally, the acknowledgements section has some excellent information related to a couple of the subplots.
I purchased a copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. The publication date was April 23, 2024.
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My 4.27 rounded to 4 stars review is coming soon.
The novel has several subplots and moves points of view several times, but the flow seemed to work relatively well. There are several twists and a couple of surprises. The characterization is well-done in this crime novel and mystery. Additionally, the world-building is excellent. My biggest quibble is that some of the subplots were wrapped up rather quickly. I wanted a little more depth to the resolutions and one subplot wasn’t resolved at all.
As usual, there are several topics woven throughout the novel that give readers an appreciation of Navajo life and culture. Some are wonderful and others aren’t. Weaving, elder care, family, education, poverty, feral dogs, adoption law, and much more are topics of interest.
Overall, this complex and intriguing mystery kept me entertained and engaged. There’s a glossary of Navajo terms at the back of the book that is good to have handy. Additionally, the acknowledgements section has some excellent information related to a couple of the subplots.
I purchased a copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. The publication date was April 23, 2024.
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My 4.27 rounded to 4 stars review is coming soon.
October 25, 2023
Leaphorn is on the phone with a potential client who wants help locating his missing wife. The call ends abruptly with the sound of an explosion, apparently on a Saturday at a local school. Was it accidental or intentional? Bernie and eventually the FBI are called to investigate. Leaphorn has a current client: a native woman who was adopted by a white couple (a “lost bird”) is trying to find out about her past, and it seems to be a dead end, since her adoptive parents have passed, and there were strange circumstances surrounding her adoption. Bernie’s mother needs more and more help, and her sister Darleen is having difficulties, too. Despite being officially retired from the force, Leaphorn and Largo find themselves pursuing a disturbed kidnapper. There are troubling addictions, financial problems, and kidnapping, but also kindness, forgiveness, and generosity. This book can be read as a stand alone, but read Anne Hillerman’s books in order to enjoy the characters and the Southwest US setting even more. Highly recommended! Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the opportunity to review this advance copy.
May 20, 2024
Enjoyed losing myself in this book which returned me to beautiful landscape of Navajo country and familiar characters. This is the first one Anne has written with Joe Leaphorn back as the main character, juggling 3 different dramas in a week’s time span. Pretty good for a long retired guy but he does say at the end that maybe he needs to get out of the private detective business.
Bernie is still dealing with crime and mama worries, Chee is definitely in the background for this one.
Several stories, some related and some not, playing out together. Best one was about a “lost bird”, a woman in her 50s who thought she was Navajo but had been adopted outside the reservation, right before the law forbidding that was passed by Congress.
One story, involving Louisa (Leaphorn’s housemate), seemed rushed in the set up and resolution.
Looking forward to the next one in the series.
Bernie is still dealing with crime and mama worries, Chee is definitely in the background for this one.
Several stories, some related and some not, playing out together. Best one was about a “lost bird”, a woman in her 50s who thought she was Navajo but had been adopted outside the reservation, right before the law forbidding that was passed by Congress.
One story, involving Louisa (Leaphorn’s housemate), seemed rushed in the set up and resolution.
Looking forward to the next one in the series.
April 27, 2024
A bit contrived.
I normally like all Leaphorn, Chee, Manuelito stories, but this one felt off. Slow at the beginning, but super fast and convoluted at the end. Too much of the storyline evolved around LCM’s various personal issues, the main plot of the story gets crammed into the last quarter of the book with a new character that appears from nowhere. It felt a bit contrived.
I normally like all Leaphorn, Chee, Manuelito stories, but this one felt off. Slow at the beginning, but super fast and convoluted at the end. Too much of the storyline evolved around LCM’s various personal issues, the main plot of the story gets crammed into the last quarter of the book with a new character that appears from nowhere. It felt a bit contrived.
May 19, 2024
These rabbits are too big to come out of these hats
I count myself a hard-core fan of Tony and Anne Hillerman's Leaphorn, Chee, and Manuelito mystery series, now clocking in at 27 novels, Lost Birds being the latest, the ninth by Anne Hillerman. It is difficult to keep a series going that long without becoming formulaic. I am sorry to say that Hillerman does not completely succeed. If you're like me, you're always happy to spend time with Joe, Chee, Bernie, and the Diné -- they're old friends, and you don't need them to have fresh new exciting things to tell you.
In fact, they kind of do have new stuff going on -- too much so. We meet Kory, the son of Joe's squeeze Louisa. Joe and Louisa are a familiar presence, but if we have ever before heard that Louisa had a son, I missed it, and Kory is A LOT. Aside from the Kory subplot, we have two main mysteries, one having to do with a school custodian whose wife has vanished, and the second with a woman who was adopted as a child and has come to Joe looking for her Navajo roots. It is this second mystery that gives the novel its title. The lost bird mystery is well written.
The missing wife mystery is, like Kory, another case that feels like pulling too big a rabbit from too small a hat -- trying too hard. The solution to this mystery feels overly complicated, with a lot of red herrings dangled before the reader along the way, and characters behaving in ways that don't really make a lot of sense considering what we are given to know about them.
Still, as I said, I'm always happy to spend time with Joe and Chee and Bernie. If you're considering reading book 27 of a 27-book series, you're probably also a hard-core fan, and I don't think you'll be disappointed. But the series is showing strain.
Blog review.
I count myself a hard-core fan of Tony and Anne Hillerman's Leaphorn, Chee, and Manuelito mystery series, now clocking in at 27 novels, Lost Birds being the latest, the ninth by Anne Hillerman. It is difficult to keep a series going that long without becoming formulaic. I am sorry to say that Hillerman does not completely succeed. If you're like me, you're always happy to spend time with Joe, Chee, Bernie, and the Diné -- they're old friends, and you don't need them to have fresh new exciting things to tell you.
In fact, they kind of do have new stuff going on -- too much so. We meet Kory, the son of Joe's squeeze Louisa. Joe and Louisa are a familiar presence, but if we have ever before heard that Louisa had a son, I missed it, and Kory is A LOT. Aside from the Kory subplot, we have two main mysteries, one having to do with a school custodian whose wife has vanished, and the second with a woman who was adopted as a child and has come to Joe looking for her Navajo roots. It is this second mystery that gives the novel its title. The lost bird mystery is well written.
The missing wife mystery is, like Kory, another case that feels like pulling too big a rabbit from too small a hat -- trying too hard. The solution to this mystery feels overly complicated, with a lot of red herrings dangled before the reader along the way, and characters behaving in ways that don't really make a lot of sense considering what we are given to know about them.
Still, as I said, I'm always happy to spend time with Joe and Chee and Bernie. If you're considering reading book 27 of a 27-book series, you're probably also a hard-core fan, and I don't think you'll be disappointed. But the series is showing strain.
Blog review.
May 16, 2024
The author returns the 'Legendary Lieutenant', retired Navajo policeman Joe Leaphorn to center stage in this intriguing mystery.
Joe is working on helping a woman trace her Navajo roots, if they even exist. Stella knows she was adopted as a baby, but all she has for clues are an old photo of a young couple posed in front of a well-known landmark and a child-sized turquoise bracelet. Alongside that, he was called by an old acquaintance, Cecil Bowlegs. Cecil's wife is missing and he wants to hire Joe to find her. An explosion at Cecil's end of the call cuts short any further details.
Meanwhile, Bernie Manuelito is sent to help investigate an explosion at an Indian School. Was the explosion caused by a bomb or is there a less dramatic explanation? As Bernie works the site, she discovers a car with a dead woman inside. The car is registered to Cecil's missing wife, and now Cecil,the school custodian, is also missing.
The convoluted storyline involving Cecil's woes and the explosion provides all the physical excitement. Stella's story provides all the poignancy. Joe works with his tiny clues and manages to find someone who might know something, but she won't tell him anything. She wants to talk to Stella.
Hillerman deftly handles the various threads of the story while keeping us firmly grounded in Navajo life. I love revisiting this part of the country via her great storytelling. I love our main characters and enjoy catching up with their personal side of their lives as well as the public facing mystery-solving side.
I'll be here for the next one.
Joe is working on helping a woman trace her Navajo roots, if they even exist. Stella knows she was adopted as a baby, but all she has for clues are an old photo of a young couple posed in front of a well-known landmark and a child-sized turquoise bracelet. Alongside that, he was called by an old acquaintance, Cecil Bowlegs. Cecil's wife is missing and he wants to hire Joe to find her. An explosion at Cecil's end of the call cuts short any further details.
Meanwhile, Bernie Manuelito is sent to help investigate an explosion at an Indian School. Was the explosion caused by a bomb or is there a less dramatic explanation? As Bernie works the site, she discovers a car with a dead woman inside. The car is registered to Cecil's missing wife, and now Cecil,the school custodian, is also missing.
The convoluted storyline involving Cecil's woes and the explosion provides all the physical excitement. Stella's story provides all the poignancy. Joe works with his tiny clues and manages to find someone who might know something, but she won't tell him anything. She wants to talk to Stella.
Hillerman deftly handles the various threads of the story while keeping us firmly grounded in Navajo life. I love revisiting this part of the country via her great storytelling. I love our main characters and enjoy catching up with their personal side of their lives as well as the public facing mystery-solving side.
I'll be here for the next one.
January 20, 2024
With each new volume she writes, I appreciate Anne Hillerman more and more. She's managed the difficult challenge of maintaining continuity with the Leaphorn and Chee mysteries her father wrote, but also taking the series in new directions. In particular, she's brought female characters to the forefront and depicts them complexly. I'm not complaining about Tony Hillerman's characters. Leaphorn and Chee are remarkable characters. But I am so glad to have Bernie Manuelito, her sister Darlene, and Leaphorn's companion Louise Bourbonette. As a woman, I'm delighted to get to know these characters. Lost Birds is a page-turner with multiple plot lines, some connected, some not. As one problem seems settled, another arises—and the characters find ways to manage them. This one really did keep me up past my bedtime, and I have no regrets.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss; the opinions are my own.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss; the opinions are my own.
May 2, 2024
The best part of this book was the front cover featuring Elephant Feet Buttes. This novel is filled with characters that are babies. Anne Hillerman is NOT her father. Here are the babies in this book
1. The Lost Bird “Stella” that needs to have a hissy fit although over 50.
2. Bernie’s sister & her continuing problems.
3. The new chief in Shiprock that is too worried about power struggles.
4. The principal from the school named Morgan.
5. Cecil, the gambler & man that had to hit Leaphorn because he didn’t like what Joe was saying to him & hid in a bathroom.
I cannot read any more of Anne Hillerman’s books and she needs to stop writing & enjoy retirement and her father’s inheritance.
1. The Lost Bird “Stella” that needs to have a hissy fit although over 50.
2. Bernie’s sister & her continuing problems.
3. The new chief in Shiprock that is too worried about power struggles.
4. The principal from the school named Morgan.
5. Cecil, the gambler & man that had to hit Leaphorn because he didn’t like what Joe was saying to him & hid in a bathroom.
I cannot read any more of Anne Hillerman’s books and she needs to stop writing & enjoy retirement and her father’s inheritance.
August 20, 2024
Uh, wow. I have so many thoughts about this, and read it in full, so credit where credit is due there. But, that's where the positives end. I would never re-read this book again, or any other Annes except for two, maybe three of them. Conversely, Tony's series was, and always will be great for re-reading--books you can rely on, take on a trip, read in bed. This one, like most of Anne's, would ruin your trip and make you have to cleanse your brain with Instagram reels due to how dark it is. This one takes the cake out of all of them in that regard.
Here's a non-exhaustive laundry list of my beefs:
1. Anne is not able to make the Leaphorn-Louisa relationship work. In previous works, they've been found unaffectionate and aloof with each other, with Louisa being a huge B to Joe, and Joe spouting one-liners. In this one, there's been a contrived attempt to ameliorate that, with Joe being uncharacteristically sappy and moony in his feelings towards Louisa, yet the relationship is still a surface-level one of, at best, friendly colleagues. Inserting frequent stand-alone sentences of Joe's inner narrative of missing Louisa and wanting to marry her does not change this dynamic. It has always been crystal clear that the author has never liked the Louisa character.
2. The Louisa's son side plot was utterly horrific. The author 100% has firsthand experience with speaking with a suicidal person, as do I-- as such, it was very well done, but I do not need to go into heart arrythmia over a fictional character when I've got real life ones. This storyline was completely tangential to the larger mystery, taking up huge space in the story, apropos of nothing, and tying into nothing.
3. Speaking of which, the lady trying to find her biological parents was also entirely unrelated to the mystery-- just completely and totally cut off from any other plot in the book. In Tony's series, when there were multiple plots, they would end up intersecting, and that's the reason why they're in the book. With this book, there are three, if not four or more whole entire separate stories running concurrently that have not one iota to do with each other. The genealogy storyline is also very boring-- why do we care about this random lady's genealogy? And yet, this storyline was the only thing that gave relief to the horrifically dark other storylines taking place.
4. The genealogy storyline also contained a huge plot hole. The long-standing Tony Hillerman mechanism is in place of the "very old white man who owns a trading post that Leaphorn visits and gets leads from," only Leaphorn has never met this guy before or been to the trading post. Do you really think Leaphorn wouldn't know this guy? Leaphorn would absolutely know this guy. What happened to the original one, anyway, that Leaphorn really did know, and the exact identical trading post he went to?
5. Virtually no loose ends were tied up at the end, for the actual mystery plot at hand, and it was riddled with plot holes. Why was Leaphorn "so extraordinarily happy," quote, when delivering to Bernie the news of which lady died? What? And the bad guy not even actually being a bad guy? It was also absolutely unclear how the woman actually died. What the hell was with the Bernie sheep side plot? That's mentioned in the acknowledgments as some important thing, but she never got around to even addressing that (FOURTH) mystery.
6. Oh my god the ending, just the very last paragraph. Leaphorn's going to be making movies? Come on- I literally said "What???" out loud at that ending.
In conclusion, I'm very annoyed with this book. It needed a strong editorial oversight. The book that Anne wants to write and is merely holding back from for us with increasing difficulty, would be, absolutely believe me, this:
Louisa dies immediately, like within the first three pages. Leaphorn retires completely and isn't a character anymore, save for maybe one phone call or visit. Tragedy strikes Chee and Bernie repeatedly, with Bernie's mother and Darlene putting their marriage on the rocks with their problems, miscarriages, cancer, Darlene committing suicide, anything terrible you can think of, domestic strife, etc. Bernie then gets kidnapped by an international trafficking ring and becomes a prisoner in a Colombian jungle, being tortured in an unfindable prison; Chee tries to get the government to find her and bring her back, and starts to go crazy and question his sanity, and starts drinking and sleeping with prostitutes, then dies of cancer or liver failure as soon as she's brought back 20 years later, a husk of her former self, mute and distant with haunted eyes, and she ends up the picture of her mother with dementia in old age, repeating history. -Curtains- This is the type of stuff itching and oozing out of Anne's writing, everything comforting that we love about Tony Hillerman's story being increasingly difficult for her to stick to.
Here's a non-exhaustive laundry list of my beefs:
1. Anne is not able to make the Leaphorn-Louisa relationship work. In previous works, they've been found unaffectionate and aloof with each other, with Louisa being a huge B to Joe, and Joe spouting one-liners. In this one, there's been a contrived attempt to ameliorate that, with Joe being uncharacteristically sappy and moony in his feelings towards Louisa, yet the relationship is still a surface-level one of, at best, friendly colleagues. Inserting frequent stand-alone sentences of Joe's inner narrative of missing Louisa and wanting to marry her does not change this dynamic. It has always been crystal clear that the author has never liked the Louisa character.
2. The Louisa's son side plot was utterly horrific. The author 100% has firsthand experience with speaking with a suicidal person, as do I-- as such, it was very well done, but I do not need to go into heart arrythmia over a fictional character when I've got real life ones. This storyline was completely tangential to the larger mystery, taking up huge space in the story, apropos of nothing, and tying into nothing.
3. Speaking of which, the lady trying to find her biological parents was also entirely unrelated to the mystery-- just completely and totally cut off from any other plot in the book. In Tony's series, when there were multiple plots, they would end up intersecting, and that's the reason why they're in the book. With this book, there are three, if not four or more whole entire separate stories running concurrently that have not one iota to do with each other. The genealogy storyline is also very boring-- why do we care about this random lady's genealogy? And yet, this storyline was the only thing that gave relief to the horrifically dark other storylines taking place.
4. The genealogy storyline also contained a huge plot hole. The long-standing Tony Hillerman mechanism is in place of the "very old white man who owns a trading post that Leaphorn visits and gets leads from," only Leaphorn has never met this guy before or been to the trading post. Do you really think Leaphorn wouldn't know this guy? Leaphorn would absolutely know this guy. What happened to the original one, anyway, that Leaphorn really did know, and the exact identical trading post he went to?
5. Virtually no loose ends were tied up at the end, for the actual mystery plot at hand, and it was riddled with plot holes. Why was Leaphorn "so extraordinarily happy," quote, when delivering to Bernie the news of which lady died? What? And the bad guy not even actually being a bad guy? It was also absolutely unclear how the woman actually died. What the hell was with the Bernie sheep side plot? That's mentioned in the acknowledgments as some important thing, but she never got around to even addressing that (FOURTH) mystery.
6. Oh my god the ending, just the very last paragraph. Leaphorn's going to be making movies? Come on- I literally said "What???" out loud at that ending.
In conclusion, I'm very annoyed with this book. It needed a strong editorial oversight. The book that Anne wants to write and is merely holding back from for us with increasing difficulty, would be, absolutely believe me, this:
Louisa dies immediately, like within the first three pages. Leaphorn retires completely and isn't a character anymore, save for maybe one phone call or visit. Tragedy strikes Chee and Bernie repeatedly, with Bernie's mother and Darlene putting their marriage on the rocks with their problems, miscarriages, cancer, Darlene committing suicide, anything terrible you can think of, domestic strife, etc. Bernie then gets kidnapped by an international trafficking ring and becomes a prisoner in a Colombian jungle, being tortured in an unfindable prison; Chee tries to get the government to find her and bring her back, and starts to go crazy and question his sanity, and starts drinking and sleeping with prostitutes, then dies of cancer or liver failure as soon as she's brought back 20 years later, a husk of her former self, mute and distant with haunted eyes, and she ends up the picture of her mother with dementia in old age, repeating history. -Curtains- This is the type of stuff itching and oozing out of Anne's writing, everything comforting that we love about Tony Hillerman's story being increasingly difficult for her to stick to.
Read
July 26, 2024A DNF, but with great respect...
I got to page 50 and felt I needed to stop. This is definitely a book for those who are into the series, or who have read at least a few. (Some might disagree - disagree on!) But for me, too much information presented at the start, much of it referring to 'earlier cases or situations' which, if I knew about them and had read these books, would have made a more enlightening read. So...
I do intend to go back and read #1 in the series and if it's as good as reviews state, I'll work my way up to #27. The writing IS very good. The description and dialogue - as I like to say - spot-on! But too much information here at the start for me to wrap my old head around.
DNF, no rating.
I got to page 50 and felt I needed to stop. This is definitely a book for those who are into the series, or who have read at least a few. (Some might disagree - disagree on!) But for me, too much information presented at the start, much of it referring to 'earlier cases or situations' which, if I knew about them and had read these books, would have made a more enlightening read. So...
I do intend to go back and read #1 in the series and if it's as good as reviews state, I'll work my way up to #27. The writing IS very good. The description and dialogue - as I like to say - spot-on! But too much information here at the start for me to wrap my old head around.
DNF, no rating.
May 29, 2024
I love this series. I love that Ms Hillerman added Bernie Manuelito to the mix and kept writing about Leaphorn and Chee. The story is complex, with three lost birds. Joe Leaphorn is trying to find the names of the birth parents of a woman who was adopted off the res as an infant. Jim Chee and Bernie Manuelito are searching for two missing women. Ms Hillerman's love for the land is evident in every sentence she writes and looking through her characters' eyes shows a land rich in stories and a grounded people. The writing is wonderful and the characters keep growing. Such a rich tale.
August 26, 2024
Excellent read. Another Anne Hillerman hit, in the tradition of her father Tony Hillerman.
May 11, 2024
I liked the Leaphorn segments of this novel, but the surrounding events seemed either irrelevant to any plot elements or very confused. It was really like reading a cozy family mystery novella embedded in a meandering essay on modern Navajo life with an explosion and a family drama thrown in for excitement value. Sorta interesting but not thrilling. I also found the police work and communication by the uniformed protagonists to be on the not-very-smart side, but perhaps they were just badly overworked and mismanaged :). And the resolutions if they can be called that were anticlimactic and unsatisfying.
May 22, 2024
One of my favorite series of all time. So thankful that Anne Hillerman has continued in the spirit of the original.
September 23, 2024
Anne Hillerman's Lost Birds features Joe Leaphorn's two latest cases as a PI. Retirement from the police force has left him missing the action. His two cases involve helping a woman find her birth family and helping a man possibly involved in a bombing find his missing wife. The younger generation of police officers, Jim Chee and Bernadette Manuelito, end up saving the day. Leaphorn realizes he needs a less dangerous occupation. The book offers an interesting mix of Navajo social problems including alcoholism, gambling, spousal abuse and care for elders. One of Leaphorn's cases focuses on preserving ties to Navajo culture for "Lost Birds," those adopted by non-Navajos. Anne Hillerman's skill as a wrier continues her father's legacy and adds depth of character and increased cultural sensitivity to a suspenseful plot.
June 24, 2024
I really liked Joe's lost bird investigation. It was my favorite part of the book. I like that Chee was in the background, as he's my least favorite of the 3 main characters by far. I love it when they focus on Bernie's work as a cop, but her family dysfunction gets tedious and takes up far too much space in each of the last few books. It's not that I don't find the issues in that storyline interesting, it's just so much. Bernie's focus on people in her investigations leads her learn things and figure out things that others don't, and her stupid new boss needs to figure that out pronto. This would have been worthy of four stars if it hadn't been for .
May 17, 2024
Joe Leaphorn now has two cases to investigate--a missing woman whose husband is an old acquaintance, and a woman who is trying to find her Navajo roots. His housemate Louisa is at first happy that her estranged son has come to visit, until he tells her he is dying of cancer. His protegee Bernie Manuelito is helping the FBI investigate an explosion at a school that may have something to do with Joe's first client, who is janitor at the school. Bernie's husband Jim Chee has a little less to do in this installment of a popular series, except deal with Bernie's mother, who is in declining health, and Bernie's sister, who has an alcohol problem. There's plenty going on, but some things don't get tied up quite as nicely as one would expect.
May 16, 2024
There was much to enjoy and appreciate like Joe and Bernie and parts of the storyline. but the rest of the characters were either unbelievable and it seemed the various subplots were too many and lacked pinch. Not as good as previous books
August 13, 2024
All of the beloved characters of Tony Hillerman’s mysteries are here, but without his nuance and poetry.
June 3, 2024
I appreciate Anne Hillerman keeping this series alive. I hope she finds joy or at least pleasure in keeping the characters alive and moving forward. I still find her writing to be a bit stilted, but thought things were starting to flow a bit better in the second half of this book. It still strikes me as strange however that now being a successful author in her own right with the backing of an established publisher that her books are still riddled with so many typos and missing words. Bernie's name was even misspelled at one point! Enough about that.
This current story was an interesting tale dealing with not only adoption of Native Americans but also mentioning the epidemic of missing Native American women. This book deals with all sorts of "lost birds". I do appreciate how the Hillermans, both Anne and her father, Tony, have tried to educate the reader on Native American culture through their tales. I especially enjoyed being schooled by this book about the Navajo rugs in regard to how they are made, how different clans have different themes they focus on, and what the various symbols mean. It is also wonderful hearing descriptions about the many amazing sites and vistas the Navajo Nation has. Every time I read a Hillerman book my list of "what to see" on my next trip to New Mexico and Arizona grows longer. Now I want to see the Elephant legs.
I may have complaints about the author's writing style and the lack of proofreading, but know I'll always be looking forward to the next book.
This current story was an interesting tale dealing with not only adoption of Native Americans but also mentioning the epidemic of missing Native American women. This book deals with all sorts of "lost birds". I do appreciate how the Hillermans, both Anne and her father, Tony, have tried to educate the reader on Native American culture through their tales. I especially enjoyed being schooled by this book about the Navajo rugs in regard to how they are made, how different clans have different themes they focus on, and what the various symbols mean. It is also wonderful hearing descriptions about the many amazing sites and vistas the Navajo Nation has. Every time I read a Hillerman book my list of "what to see" on my next trip to New Mexico and Arizona grows longer. Now I want to see the Elephant legs.
I may have complaints about the author's writing style and the lack of proofreading, but know I'll always be looking forward to the next book.
June 27, 2024
Anne Hillerman is a journalist and she's gotten better with fiction, but it means there is always an agenda or two attached to the story, which I don't recall from her father's work. The Leaphorn story in this one is pretty good. The Manuelito story is clunky and doesn't end with any excitement.
April 28, 2024
Anne Hillerman's father was one of my favorite authors. She has followed in his footsteps.
May 21, 2024
Excellent story. I have always loved this series when Tony Hillerman was alive. I think his daughter is doing a great job of continuing.
June 9, 2024
I’m beginning to not like Anne Hillerman’s characters. They’re all so flawed that I don’t care what happens to them. The Louisa and son storyline was particularly ludicrous.
July 7, 2024
This was way too quick and easy a read, because instead of focusing on the important issues pertaining to lost birds, it fritters away interest with distractions.
May 25, 2024
First, let me say that I have read and loved every book written by Tony and Anne Hillerman. I am so grateful that Anne took up her dad’s legacy and continued with his characters. In this latest book, the legendary Lieutenant has accepted two very different PI jobs. One is helping locate the biological parents of a “Lost Bird”, a Navajo child who was adopted, perhaps illegally, and raised by white parents. The other is locating a missing woman. The missing woman, just happens to be a former employee of a school that just blew up and the wife of the school janitor. The investigation of that explosion and subsequent crimes falls to Bernadette along with the FBI and other local jurisdictions. So there are a lot of threads here; way too many in my opinion. These plot threads look like a ball of yarn after the cats have been at it, a gnarled mess. Add to that a storyline involving the son of Lt. Leaphorn’s housemate and another one with Bernie’s mother and sister, and there’s just a little too much going on here. The dialogue is not tight, too many inconsequential things and other very important clues that seem to slip through the cracks. The main characters are true, the scenery, as always, is perfect. There’s just a little too much and the wrap up involves a twist that I didn’t see coming. I blame the editor. With a little bit of editing help, the plot could have been tightened up, the side quests minimized a bit and I’d be giving it 5 stars instead of 3. For me it was just frustrating, especially when I love these characters so much and want to read about them more.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 5, 2024
To many plot lines which led to confusion for me. Each plot line was compelling, I just felt there were to many. This all took place in a very short period of time, which makes the characters seem superhuman to be able to achieve what they did in such a short time line which also added to the confusion. Just one reader’s perspective.
I have liked the Leaphorn, Chee, Manuelito dynamic since reading my first Hillerman mystery. They introduced readers to the indigenous history, mythology and culture of the “four corners”, as well as having interesting characters, places and plot lines. I have even gone back to reread some of the earlier novels because of the story telling. Whether singularly or together the characters were believable. I hope this isn’t the last of these characters but I felt like the author was tying up loose ends.
I have liked the Leaphorn, Chee, Manuelito dynamic since reading my first Hillerman mystery. They introduced readers to the indigenous history, mythology and culture of the “four corners”, as well as having interesting characters, places and plot lines. I have even gone back to reread some of the earlier novels because of the story telling. Whether singularly or together the characters were believable. I hope this isn’t the last of these characters but I felt like the author was tying up loose ends.
July 17, 2024
I mostly listened to the Audible version of this novel. I swapped back and forth with the kindle edition. This is Anne Hillerman's best novel yet. I loved it! Leaphorn, Manuelito, and Chee are narrators as well as a couple of other characters. I enjoyed having several mysteries going at the same time. Some of them turned out to be related, another not. That is the mark of a good mystery to me. Some of the issues relevant to this mystery are missing indigenous women, domestic violence, alcoholism, gambling addiction, the problem of aging for both the older people and children of those who are aging, mental illness, children who were adopted off the reservation before that practice was stopped, underfunded schools, and the lack of running water for many on the Navajo reservation. Weaving is highlighted as an artform in this book to my great delight. Once again, thank you to Anne Hillerman for keeping the stories of Leaphorn, Chee, Manuelito, and all the rest of our beloved characters going. I love how they all care for each other and have each other's backs in their work lives and personal lives.
May 20, 2024
Lost girls and a school explosion—
As always, Hillerman ties disparate plot lines together as Manuelito, Chee and Leaphorn each investigate stories. Leaphorn is keeping himself busy by investigating the parentage of a woman, adopted at birth from a Navajo woman. Chee is busy learning his new assignment, while the burden of the work in this book falls on Manuelito, who is finding her own way with a new boss and helping investigate a bombing at a local school. It all seems to hinge on the theme of finding one’s way and seeking the lost. Even Leaphorn seems destined for a new path.
As always, Hillerman ties disparate plot lines together as Manuelito, Chee and Leaphorn each investigate stories. Leaphorn is keeping himself busy by investigating the parentage of a woman, adopted at birth from a Navajo woman. Chee is busy learning his new assignment, while the burden of the work in this book falls on Manuelito, who is finding her own way with a new boss and helping investigate a bombing at a local school. It all seems to hinge on the theme of finding one’s way and seeking the lost. Even Leaphorn seems destined for a new path.
June 8, 2024
Lost bird refers to Native American children adopted by outsiders. Joe Leaphorn is assisting a woman find her birth parents. It's quite informative about changes in federal laws concerning adoptions as well as being a very heartwarming tale of connection. Joe is also involved in some dangerous drama and domestic violence involving his girlfriend's family as well as being assaulted by another client who is suspected of murder. Lots going on in this book as well as Officer Manuelito and Jim Chee dealing with family issues, feral dogs attacking sheep, a school explosion, and a missing woman. Never a dull moment on the Rez. Indeed, Joe Leaphorn is getting too old for all this stuff.
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