What do You think about Skeleton Man (2006)?
Tony Hillerman used to be one of my favorite authors, but he did that thing a lot of authors do with long-running series: said he was done writing Leaphorn/Chee mysteries, but then kept writing them. After the stinker that was The Sinister Pig, I was almost afraid to read Skeleton Man, since it's the next to last book Hillerman wrote before he died, and I'd rather remember Hillerman in his glory days, when Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee were still fresh and sharp and coming at their Navajo ways from two different viewpoints: Leaphorn the veteran, the pragmatic realist who has no patience for superstitions, and Chee the rookie, the traditional Navajo who wants to be a cop and a medicine man.Skeleton Man was better than The Sinister Pig, but it brought nothing new to the series or the characters. I mean, it also does what all long-running detective series do and start to become as much about the characters' personal lives as whatever case they are working on this book. Chee is now engaged to Bernadette Manuelito, who was first introduced several books ago as a love interest for Chee, who has been notoriously unlucky in love since he first appeared way back in the early books to share the spotlight with Leaphorn. But that's about all this book is: an update on Bernie and Chee.The actual plot involves a plane crash fifty years ago that left a suitcase full of diamonds handcuffed to a dead man's wrist at the bottom of a canyon in the reservation. Now, fifty years later, someone wants those diamonds, and the dead man's daughter wants his arm so she can use DNA testing to prove he was her father. We get a repeat of the previous book in that basically you've got a rich villain sending a hired thug to do his dirty work, so it's another white dude showing up to cause trouble.The entire story is framed as Joe Leaphorn ("the legendary Leaphorn" as he is referred to umpteen times) telling the story to his old fart buddies around coffee - this is the pretext to even get him involved in the book at all. There is a little bit of interaction with some Hopi Indians (hence the double-meaning of the title; there is a very loose connection to a Hopi myth), and the climax is resolved by an act of nature.This is really just a short story that Hillerman padded out to (barely) novel length.I can only recommend Skeleton Man for true Hillerman fans who just want to finish the series. There won't be any more Chee/Leaphorn novels, after all. But the earlier books in the series are well worth reading; start with The Blessing Way.
—David
About 30 years ago, I read my first Tony Hillerman novel, Skinwalkers, and I was underwhelmed. At that time, Hillerman was really getting hot, and his popularity was growing rapidly. Co-workers were discussing his books at work, and one prevailing opinion was that his books were excellent.I found the book lacking suspense, drama, and violence. I thought the mystery was thin. The landscape was brought to vivid life by the author, especially in one late scene describing the view from a hospital room. Overall, I was disappointed and never read another Hillerman book until now.I picked up Skeleton Man because the premise intrigued me. Based on the true life collision of two airliners over the Grand Canyon in the 1950’s, in this novel one passenger was carrying a case of valuable diamonds handcuffed to his arm. During the cleanup after the disaster, the arm was spotted among the debris in a creek bed, but washed away before it could be recovered. Now, fifty years later, one of the diamonds has turned up. A Hopi man tries to pawn it for twenty dollars, and this makes him the suspect in an unrelated jewelry store robbery and shooting. Retired Lt. Leaphorn recalls an earlier case where a similar diamond turned up, and begins to investigate. The diamond’s reappearance brings out the bad guys, and a woman who wants to recover the arm so DNA will prove she is the rightful heir to a fortune. She claims to be the daughter of the airline passenger with the diamonds. Of course, the men now in charge of that fortune want the diamonds recovered and the arm destroyed. Jim Chee, his fiancée, and another tribal law enforcement officer head down into the canyon in an attempt to find the mysterious figure who the Hopi suspect says gave him the diamond.As with Skinwalkers, I found this novel lacking in suspense and drama, and violence is kept to a minimum. The book is essentially a travelogue, with quite a bit of Native American lore, and many conversations between the characters. The book is predictable. The author never develops the dramatic possibilities inherent in the setup. There is only one real moment of surprise in the entire book, and that is because it includes violence and is completely out of character for the person committing the act. This act of violence is also never completely resolved. I may give Hillerman one more chance, but three strikes and he’s out.
—Joe Noir
After the streets & dark alleys of Barcelona in The Angel's Game I felt like taking a "vacation" to the wide open spaces of the American southwest and that's what Tony Hillerman mysteries do. Short tales far beyond my everyday haunts & world view. But for less than 250 pages Hillerman still seemed to repeat the premise of the lost diamonds in a 1958 plane crash too many times. It could have been even shorter without the redundancy. Still it moved quickly & did what I wanted with some familiar & beloved characters, demonstrating that Native Americans are not monolithic in culture or spirituality. The only time it dragged a bit was when the story went over to the white characters. Not because they were white, but because they were so ordinary & predictable.
—Ed Mestre
