 1st edition |
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Jim Chee/Joe Leaphorn Navajo Tribal Police Series
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| Author | Tony Hillerman |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Detective |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
| Published | 2002 - present |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
| Preceded by | Hunting Badger, 1999 |
| Followed by | The Sinister Pig, 2003 |
The Wailing Wind, a New York Times best-seller,[1] is the fifteenth in the Chee/Leaphorn Navajo Tribal Police series of crime fiction novels by Tony Hillerman.
Contents |
Plot summary [edit]
When Navajo Tribal Police Officer Bernadette Manuelito investigates an abandoned vehicle in Apache County, Arizona and discovers a body, the available evidence indicates the death is due to natural causes. While awaiting personnel from the medical examiner's office, Officer Manuelito indulges her interest in botany and collects seeds, placing them in an old tobacco tin she finds nearby. But when the body is removed from the vehicle several hours later by medical personnel, it is discovered that the death is a homicide and Officer Manuelito realizes she has inadvertently contaminated or destroyed evidence.
Navajo Tribal Police Sergeant Jim Chee, Officer Manuelito's superior officer, contacts retired Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn for advice on how to resolve the destroyed/contaminated evidence problem. This renews Leaphorn's interest in an old case involving Wiley Denton, a Gallup oil and gas magnate who shot and killed, in self-defense it was claimed, Marvin McKay who claimed to have found the famous Golden Calf lost gold mine.
When Denton, recently released from prison after serving a short sentence, contacts Leaphorn to find Denton's wife, a friend of Marvin McKay who disappeared the day of the shooting and has not been heard from since, the stage is set for a mystery involving forest fires, protection of Navajo religious sites, lost gold mines, and moth-balled munitions bunkers.
Characters [edit]
In addition to Chee and Leaphorn, returning series characters include:
- Albert "Cowboy" Dashee, Deputy Sheriff of Apache County
- Bernadette Manuelito, patrol officer for the Navajo Tribal Police
- Captain Largo, Chee's superior officer
- Professor Louisa Bourbonnette, Leaphorn's friend and sometimes housemate
Continuing characters introduced to the series in this novel include:
- "Oz" Osborne, Special Agent, FBI
Other characters introduced in this novel include:
- Hostiin James Peshlaki, suspected of shooting at Officer Manuelito
- Hostiin Rodney Yellow, Officer Manuelito's uncle, a shaman and ethnobotanist
- Linda Verbiscar Denton, wife of Wiley Denton
- Marvin McKay, gold prospector
- Peggy McKay, common law wife of Marvin McKay
- Thomas Doherty, corpse found by Manuelito, nephew of a former County Sheriff
- Wiley Denton, Gallup oil and gas magnate
Natural, Cultural & Historical References [edit]
Geographic, botanical, animal, historical, and cultural artifacts and events often play key roles in the Chee/Leaphorn series - either as direct plot elements, to explain character motivations or perspectives, or to illustrate cultural or religious beliefs and practices.[2][3][4][5] In The Wailing Wind this includes:
- BOTANICAL: Chamisa, sandbur, goathead (plant seeds Manuelito removes from Doherty's clothing); Aster, mountain columbine (plant seeds collected by Manuelito near Doherty's body); Thread and needle grass, snake weed, Johnson grass (plant life encountered by Manuelito while searching for site where Doherty was killed)
- CULTURAL/RELIGIOUS: Pozole (regional food, served to Leaphorn during investigation);
- GEOGRAPHICAL: Chuska Mountains (Doherty body is found west of this range); Shiprock, New Mexico (location of Chee's office); Gallup, New Mexico (Denton's home); Window Rock, Arizona (Leaphorn's home); Also see plot summary
- HISTORICAL: Fort Wingate (location of old ordnance bunkers & location of historic archives of U.S. Army Surgeon Washington Matthews); Lost Adams Diggings, Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine (famous "lost" gold mines mentioned in the novel)
See also [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ New York Times best-seller listing for June 23, 2002
- ^ Tony Hillerman: A Critical Companion by John M. Reilly
- ^ Talking Mysteries: A Conversation with Tony Hillerman By Tony Hillerman and Ernie Bulow
- ^ Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir by Tony Hillerman
- ^ Tony Hillerman's Navajoland by Laurance D. Lindford and Tony Hillerman
External links [edit]
- Short review of The Wailing Wind by Marilyn Stasio, New York Times, May 5, 2002
- Smithsonian Institution Research Information System (SIRIS) Archives For Army Surgeon Washington Matthews
- Free on-line access to selected papers of Washington Matthews
- Google Books limited preview of The Wailing Wind
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