In this 27th book in the 'Leaphorn, Chee, and Manuelito' series, 'The Legendary Lieutenant' Joe Leaphorn is retired from the police and working as a private investigator.
In his personal life, Joe is sharing his home in Window Rock, Arizona with anthropologist Louisa Bourebonette, who studies customs of indigenous people.
This novel follows three storylines that don't intersect (for the most part). I'll provide a brief summary of each one.
▶▶ Joe Leaphorn is doing an investigation for a woman named Stella Brown.
Stella is an adoptee who grew up with White parents, but suspects she has Navajo heritage. Now that Stella's adoptive parents have died, she feels free to look into her background.
Observing photos of Stella, Leaphorn notes that she looks like an artist's rendition of the classic Navajo woman - 'silky hair as dark as a raven's wing; large, clear russet eyes; skin the color of light milk chocolate; and a tall, slim frame.'
As clues to her origins, Stella has two things from her birth mother: a photo of a young man and woman that includes a classic Navajo baby blanket, and a baby bracelet. Stella also has a birth certificate, but Leaphorn discovers that it's not the 'typical' document.
Leaphorn uses all this, and some help from Officer Jim Chee, to look into Stella's history.
[Note: Native American children taken from their parents and brought up in White homes are called 'Lost Birds'. In her acknowledgments, author Anne Hillerman writes, 'The idea for the book, Lost Birds, was born from the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court might overturn the Indian Child Welfare Act (1978), designed to protect Indian children against the possible removal from their tribal communities. In 2023, the court let the law stand.]
*****
▶▶ Joe Leaphorn gets a phone call from a man called Cecil Bowlegs, who works as a janitor at Eagle Roost School. Cecil says his wife has been missing for three weeks, and the police have given up the search. Leaphorn agrees to help, and the two men are talking when an explosion cuts off the call.
It turns out a building at Eagle Roost School - which contains classrooms, a music studio, a garage, and the janitor's office - blew up.
Bowlegs wasn't hurt by the blast, but thinks it was set to kill him, so he runs away. All this makes Cecil a suspect for either accidentally or purposely blowing up the edifice.
Officer Bernadette (Bernie) Manuelito, who's had explosives training, is assigned to help with the investigation.
This becomes a homicide case when a dead body is found in the burned garage.
*****
▶▶ Joe Leaphorn's housemate, Louisa Bourebonette, is expecting a visit from her son Kory. Growing up, Kory thought Louisa loved her work more than him, and they've been semi-estranged for years. So Louisa is happy when Kory says he's coming to Window Rock for a few days.
Leaphorn remains out of the way during Louisa and Kory's reunion, but later learns it didn't go well. Kory is dying from cancer and has anger issues, and he isn't cooperating with any of his treatment. All this leads to dramatic incidents that require interference by Leaphorn and his friend (and former boss) Captain Largo.
*****
Meanwhile, in their private lives, married couple Bernie Manuelito and Jim Chee are concerned.
Bernie's mother has dementia and lives with Bernie's sister Darleen - a nursing student with a drinking problem. When Darleen gets drunk one night, and Mrs. Manuelito almost burns the house down, Bernie and Jim know a change is needed. So Bernie tries to convince Darleen to get help, and Bernie and Jim think about future plans.
I enjoyed the book, but would have liked to see more police procedural features, and more elements of Navajo culture, which always enhanced Tony Hillerman's novels. Still, this novel would probably appeal to fans of the series.
Rating: 3.5 stars
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