Rating: 
Summary: More of the Chee/Leaphorn duo
Review: This pair is a little like Batman and Robin, except Leaphorn is a lot smarter than Batman (and waaaay older), and Chee is not nearly as ingenuous as Robin. But still. It's the older guy as prickly friend and wise mentor to the younger upstart. Chee is now a Lieutenant in The First Eagle, and Leaphorn, whose wife has died, is retired and trying the role of PI on for size. Chee has got a murder to solve, and Leaphorn's working on a missing person case; the two cases merge on Yells Back Butte while, on the side, we have hantavirus rearing its ugly head.
Good Hillerman stuff. Not the best, but really, just good stuff.
Rating:
Summary: Chee's the Lieutenant now
Review: Tony Hillerman has been writing detective novels about Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, Navajo policemen who fight crime on the reservation and deal with things that are often wrapped up in tribal justice, and sometimes possibly supernatural things, too. Each of these stories is strong, in its own way. This one is standard, middle-of-the-road Hillerman, with the difference that there's no supernatural element to the story.Instead, we get a short crash course in infectious diseases, including the bubonic plague and hantavirus, among others. A Navajo dies of plague, and a Navajo policeman is murdered, apparently by a Hopi who's poaching eagles on the Navajo reservation. Chee (now an acting Lieutenant in the Navajo tribal police) catches the poacher leaning over the dead cop, makes the expected deduction, and arrests him. Things heat up a bit when he discovers that his old flame, Janet Pete, is back from Washington and coincidentally acting as the poacher's defense attorney. I like Tony Hillerman, and I liked this book. It did lack some of the atmosphere of some of his earlier novel, as there isn't much of the tribal mysticism that made other books so interesting, but it is a good story and fun.
Rating:
Summary: Exploring The Landscape Of Culture
Review: Tony Hillerman novels explore two landscapes - the red rock/AAA Indian Country map landscape and the landscape of intersecting cultures and law enforcement agencies. The First Eagle spends most of its time in the second landscape, and for that reason, it's good police procedural and good but not great Hillerman. Chee is now an Acting Lieutenant and Leaphorn is retired [but still the Legendary Lieutenant Leaphorn in Chee's mind]. Despite the fact that Chee is a cop and Leaphorn is trying out the role of private investigator, our two main characters still solve the crime when they put their heads together. This is a story of agencies - health agencies looking for plague bacteria and hantavirus and law enforcement agencies looking for killers and good press. Differing points of view provide much of the tension in the story [Hopi v. Navajo, Washington v. the rez, Jim Chee v. Janet Pete, the truth v. political gain]. Yells Back Butte is the place where Jim Chee's murder investigation and Joe Leaphorn's missing person case intersect. If you must have lots of red rock in your Hillerman, First Eagle may disappoint you. I enjoyed The First Eagle, but not enough to give it the fifth star. A plea to all mystery reviewers: please don't give away the ending! I read some of the reviews on this site when I was part way through the book and one of the reviews gives away too much information about the killer while stating the reasons for the reviewer's displeasure.
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