Flying Fish Bookstore: Tony Hillerman

Flying Fish Bookstore

Tony Hillerman
May 27, 1925 -

Few contemporary mystery writers can match Tony Hillerman's knowledge of a subject and ability to spin a gripping yarn with well-developed, believable characters and situations. Hillerman's milieu is the American Southwest, with its rich and fascinating Indian cultures. His central characters, Lt. Joe Leaphorn and Sgt. Jim Chee, are Navajo Tribal Policemen, and their investigations take them to locations throughout Navajo Country, through colorful and mysterious mesas, washes and caverns.
As with the books of Ellis Peters, Hillerman's novels are best read in the order written, as his characters and relationships evolve from book to book. Interestingly, unlike most authors who use the same protagonist in a series of books, Hillerman's detectives join forces after three books apiece, creating a very human dynamic between the older Leaphorn and younger Chee. After the first three Leaphorn books and the first three featuring Jim Chee, the two detectives work together on a case, a partnership that survives even Leaphorn's eventual retirement.
Each of Tony Hillerman's novels is a delightful and fascinating introduction to the traditions, beliefs and places of ancient and contemporary Navajo Hopi and Zuni peoples. He was given the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award in 1991. A versatile writer, Hillerman has also authored numerous nonfiction works about the world he knows best, the American Southwest.

Joe Leaphorn

Jim Chee

Leaphorn & Chee

Other Novels
and Stories

Collections

Joe Leaphorn

	The Blessing Way by Tony Hillerman / Paperback / August 1991 (first published 1970)	*Top*
	When Lt. Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Tribal Police discovers a corpse with a mouth full of sand at a crime scene seemingly without tracks or clues, he is ready to suspect a supernatural killer. And what he must stalk is the Wolf-Witch along a chilling trail between mysticism and murder.
	Paperback - Audio Cassette (abridged)

Dance Hall of the Dead
by Tony Hillerman / Paperback / March 1990 (first published 1973)

Top

A Zuni Indian boy dies in a bizarre ritual slaying, and his best friend, a Navajo youth, is missing. Lt. Joe Leaphorn must track the suspected killer across the desert of New Mexico and Arizona, from Zuni village to Navajo hogan.

Paperback - Hardcover - Audio Cassette - Large Print

	Listening Woman by Tony Hillerman / Paperback / June 1990 (first published 1978)	*Top*
	The state police and FBI are baffled when an old man and a teenaged girl are brutally murdered. The blind Navajo Listening Woman speaks of ghosts and witches, but Lt. Joe Leaphorn knows his people and begins an investigation that leads to the most violent confrontation of his career.
	Paperback - Audio Cassette

Jim Chee

	People of Darkness by Tony Hillerman / Paperback / January 1991 (first published 1980)	*Top*
	The old Indian was already dying when someone tried to murder him. A box stolen from a rich man's house was filled only with rocks--but that man's wife offered Sg. Jim Chee $3,000 to get it back. Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police must use all of his powers of deduction and insight to extricate himself from a dangerous web consisting of a mysterious millionaire, a sinister, peyote-eating Indian cult and murder.
	Paperback

	The Dark Wind by Tony Hillerman / Paperback / January 1990 (first published 1982)	*Top*
	A corpse whose palms and soles have been "scalped," an airplane's mysterious crash in the nighttime desert, and a vanishing shipment of cocaine are among the disturbing clues that send Sgt. Jim Chee into the deadly web of a cunningly-spun plot driven by Navajo sorcery and white man's greed.
	Paperback - Audio Cassette (abridged)

	The Ghostway by Tony Hillerman / Paperback / January 1992 (first published 1984)	*Top*
	Jim Chee goes after a killer and on an odyssey of murder and revenge that moves from an Indian hogan and its trapped ghost to the dark underbelly of Los Angeles to a healing ceremony whose cure could be death.
	Paperback - Hardcover - Audio Cassette (abridged)

Leaphorn and Chee

	Skinwalkers by Tony Hillerman / Paperback / April 1990 (first published 1986)	*Top*
	Three shotgun blasts explode into the trailer of Sgt. Jim Chee, but Chee survives to join partner Lt. Joe Leaphorn in a frightening investigation that leads them into a dark work of ritual, witchcraft and blood - all tied to the elusive and evil "skinwalker."
	Paperback - Hardcover - Audio Cassette (abridged)

	A Thief of Time by Tony Hillerman / Paperback / January 1990 (first published 1988)	*Top*
	A noted anthropologist vanishes at a moonlit Indian ruin where "thieves of time" ravage sacred ground for profit. When two corpses appear among stolen goods and bones at an ancient burial site, Lt. Joe Leaphorn and Officer Jim Chee must plunge into the past to unearth the astonishing truth behind a mystifying series of horrific murders.
	Paperback - Hardcover - Audio Cassette (abridged)

	Talking God by Tony Hillerman / Paperback / January 1991 (first published 1989)	*Top*
	Lt. Joe Leaphorn and Officer Jim Chee combine forces to solve two seemingly unrelated cases: grave robbery and a murder victim stripped of identification. The search leads them into the dangerous land of superstition and ancient ceremony.
	Paperback - Hardcover - Audio Cassette

	Coyote Waits by Tony Hillerman / Paperback / January 1992 (first published 1990)	*Top*
	When Navajo Tribal Policeman Delbert Nez is murdered, a whiskey-soaked Navajo shaman is found with the murder weapon. When the old man won't utter a word of confession or denial, Lt. Joe Leaphorn and Officer Jim Chee begin an investigation that unravels a complex plot involving an historical find, a lost fortune, and the mythical Coyote, who is always waiting - and always hungry.
	Paperback - Hardcover - Audio Cassette (abridged)

	Sacred Clowns by Tony Hillerman / Paperback / August 1994 (first published 1993)	*Top*
	Navajo Detective Jim Chee and Lt. Joe Leaphorn team up to solve two murder cases, a hit-and-run accident, a possible bribery and corruption scandal within the tribe and a counterfeit racket involving sacred tribal artifacts. The byplay between prickly, methodical Leaphorn and the younger, impatient, intuitive and spiritual Chee, along with romantic intrigues for both heroes, enhance this suspenseful story.
	Paperback - Audio Cassette - Large Print

	The Fallen Man by Tony Hillerman / Paperback / October 1997 (first published 1996)	*Top*
	A skeleton is discovered 1700 near the peak of a sacred mountain in an Indian reservation. Joe Leaphorn comes out of retirement to investigate the case, and finds a tangle of issues involving mining rights, land claims and money. His police contact is Jim Chee, who is entangled in problems and dilemmas of his own, not the least of which is his rocky relationship with Janet Pete.
	Paperback - Hardback - Audio Cassette (abridged) - Large Print

	The First Eagle by Tony Hillerman / Paperback / July 1999 (first published 1998)	*Top*
	Acting Lt. Jim Chee is involved investigating the shooting of an officer at Yells Back Butte but is not convinced that the young Hopi found standing over the mortally wounded man, though probably an eagle poacher, is the killer. Retired Joe Leaphorn has been hired to locate of a young woman who disappeared from Yells Back Butte. Sorting out whether the two events are connected, our heroes give us an intriguing story.
	Paperback - Video - Audio Cassette - Audio Cassette (abridged) - Large Print

Collections of Novels

	The Joe Leaphorn Mysteries : The Blessing Way/Dance Hall of the Dead/Listening Woman by Tony Hillerman / Out of Print	*Top*
	All three Hillerman mysteries featuring Lt. Joe Leaphorn are bound together in a single volume.
	Out of Print - Out of Print

	The Jim Chee Mysteries: People of Darkness/The Dark Wind/The Ghostway by Tony Hillerman / Hardcover / October 1990	*Top*
	All three Hillerman mysteries featuring Officer Jim Chee are bound together in a single volume.
	Hardcover

	Leaphorn & Chee : Skinwalkers/A Thief of Time/Talking God by Tony Hillerman / Out of Print	*Top*
	Three Hillerman mysteries featuring Lt. Joe Leaphorn and Officer Jim Chee are bound together in a single volume.
	Out of Print

For more information, email Karen Fish

Flying Fish Creations
Northridge, California
(800) 484-2669 x7061

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Webmaster

Updated May 10, 2000

Few contemporary mystery writers can match Tony Hillerman's knowledge of a subject and ability to spin a gripping yarn with well-developed, believable characters and situations. Hillerman's milieu is the American Southwest, with its rich and fascinating Indian cultures. His central characters, Lt. Joe Leaphorn and Sgt. Jim Chee, are Navajo Tribal Policemen, and their investigations take them to locations throughout Navajo Country, through colorful and mysterious mesas, washes and caverns. As with the books of Ellis Peters, Hillerman's novels are best read in the order written, as his characters and relationships evolve from book to book. Interestingly, unlike most authors who use the same protagonist in a series of books, Hillerman's detectives join forces after three books apiece, creating a very human dynamic between the older Leaphorn and younger Chee. After the first three Leaphorn books and the first three featuring Jim Chee, the two detectives work together on a case, a partnership that survives even Leaphorn's eventual retirement. Each of Tony Hillerman's novels is a delightful and fascinating introduction to the traditions, beliefs and places of ancient and contemporary Navajo Hopi and Zuni peoples. He was given the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award in 1991. A versatile writer, Hillerman has also authored numerous nonfiction works about the world he knows best, the American Southwest.
	Joe Leaphorn
	Jim Chee
	Leaphorn & Chee
	Other Novels and Stories
	Collections

Joe Leaphorn

Jim Chee

Leaphorn and Chee

Other Novels and Stories

Collections of Novels