Book: Buy The Wailing Wind Online

Average Rating:

Under the circumstances, I was reluctant to even begin reading The Wailing Wind, but there I was, at the car wash, with only this novel available. . . .my reaction? Relief! Okay, this is NOT a great mystery, but the glorious descriptive touches have returned, as has Hillerman's ability to present his characters through their actions and reflections, rather than via the curt authorial explication which characterized the three novels that came before this.

That being said, this book definitely has its faults. The ending is disappointing and lacks the complexity that the situation requires. Of course, it's difficult to tie up all the loose ends when you've made the mistake of having TOO MANY DETECTIVES: Joe Leaphorn, Jim Chee, AND Bernie Manuelito?? To resolve all of their visions and theories is just too cumbersome. The books that featured Jim Chee OR Joe Leaphorn exclusively were much more satisfying and concise.

What I found most troubling, however, were the contextual inconsistencies: Janet Pete's being described as a "perfect beauty", and the inference that she's an Anglo. The earlier novels make it quite clear that she's a Navajo, and is "classy" rather than beautiful. More puzzling, Chee's First love, Mary Landon, is described as being from Wisconsin, while the earlier novels clearly establish that she hails from New England.
Has Hillerman decided to change the background of these characters? Has he simply forgotten his first descriptions? (Okay, we're all entitled to our "senior moments", but aren't his editors susposed to guard against blatant contradictions in fact?)

I sincerely hope these flaws can be explained away by forgetfulness on the author's part or by editorial error, because I truly want to believe that the Tony Hillerman I knew has returned in The Wailing Wind.

However, I felt that the storyline was a bit flat and the main characters seemed one-dimensional in this particular book. The new characters for this story were barely developed. The plot was transparent and didn't have much of a "mystery"

I just felt that something was missing. Kind of like looking at the map of Navajo Land that is printed inside the cover. A careful look reveals that Crownpoint is missing.

Was it worth the money? Yes, any Tony Hillerman story is worth both my money and my time but this one is less than average, based on my reading the entire series.

Tony Hillerman's novels featuring Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee of the Navajo police have familiarized people around the world with the culture of the Navajo and the desert Southwest in which they live. Last year, while browsing in a bookstore in a medieval town in Germany, I came across a German language edition of one of Hillerman's books.

To those whose primary interest in Hillerman's work relates to his use of the Navajo culture in his stories, "The Wailing Wind" does not disappoint. In this book, as an example, one finds that Officer Bernadette Manuelito's adherence to the Navajo belief of avoiding contact with the dead leads her to blunder in an investigation. But she re-establishes her credibility by using information from her uncle, who is a shaman with a unique knowledge of native plants.

It is interesting how Hillerman constructs the characters of Chee and Leaphorn. Both men are effective policemen, but they are very different men. Chee is younger, more impetuous, more error-prone, and less sure of himself. In one passage, Chee pretends to study the menu carefully in the Navajo Inn, to preserve his pride, because in the end he always orders a hamburger. Chee is also more a traditional Navajo than Leaphorn, who has earned a master's degree in Anthropology at Arizona State University. But Chee, who has studied with his uncle to become a chaman in earlier books uses that knowledge here to predict a suspect's likely behavior. Leaphorn is older, retired, more self-confident, steadier, and exhibits the deductive reasoning powers of a Navajo Sherlock Holmes. For example, when Chee is giving Leaphorn some information about a crime, he notes that one never has to explain the ramifications of a set of circumstances to Leaphorn. He always sees them.

Those who have followed the vicissitudes of Jim Chee's love life through several novels, with two earlier girlfriends, may take interest in the emergence in this book of Bernadette Manuelito as his new, would-be love interest. Leaphorn, the Legendary Lieutenant, on the other hand, remains aloof. His friendship with Professor Louisa Bourbonette seems destined to stay platonic. Leaphorn still remembers little things about his Navajo wife who died some years before.

In "The Wailing Wind", Hillerman, as always, utilizes his considerable skill in constructing a plot of seemingly unrelated, intriguing threads of events that he adroitly weaves together at the end. This book features a lost gold mine, a beautiful, vanished wife, a Halloween story of the supernatural, and two murders. The construction of this plot is certainly the equal of most in Hillerman's books, though its resolution is probably not the equal of his best. In the conclusion, Leaphorn seems to make some uncharacteristic mistakes. But it is good to read about Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee again. This book takes one further into the development of these well-drawn characters, and about such characters one always wants to read more.