Rating: 
Summary: Reunion
Review: Hillerman fans will enjoy this reunion of Joe leaphorn and Jim Chee as they work a case that has ties to an old unresolved mystery. Supurb and unbeatable are words that come to mind as you work through the pages of "The Wailing Wind." Hillerman's talent of creating word pictures of the southwest continues in this narrative as customs of the area always make you feel as if you walk beside him and see it all through his eyes. Another winner from this great author.
Beverly J Scott author of Righteous Revenge
Rating: 
Summary: Tired
Review: I've read them all and either my expectations are too high or Tony Hillerman is getting tired. Wailing Wind just didn't rivet me the way previous books did.I've thoroughly enjoyed reading about the Desert Southwest and the Navajo nation in particular, though, and likely will continue to pick up his novels, but I'll probably opt for the paperback edition in the future.
Rating:
Summary: Irresistable
Review: This has all the traditional elements that draw me to Hillerman's novels: traditional Navaho, Anglo stereotypes, and Hillerman's own tradition of excellence in plotting, characterization, and believable human developments (witness Jim Chee's successive love entanglements). This is mostly a Joe Leaphorn, retired Navaho policman, story, dredging up an old unsolved case of his that involves a contested lost gold mine. Sgt. Chee helps out with his knowledge of Navaho shamanism (which, sadly, he is no longer studying). Navaho seem very "cool" characters, deliberate, kinda laid back, and reasoning within their logical framework of Harmony (with its frightening tales of divine sanction). I had a chilling moment when I realized what the wailing wind would turn out to be. The realization came a bit early I thought, but then maybe Tony wanted to reward us for paying attention. As ever the atmosphere is lovingly authentic and the clues dovetail so neatly despite being scattered across a century of Southwestern history. In McGarrity's New Mexico stories the police produce the clues through hard work, in Hillerman's they are strewn across the landscape and have to be recognized.
Rating: 
Summary: Back in form once more
Review: For those of us who have been following the exploits and loves of Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee over the years, this is a terrific book. I must admit that Hunting Badger was a slight disappointment, the ending was very weak. Wailing Wind, on the other hand, starts strong and continues to a very satisfying end. Hillerman knows his characters so well, that they carry the story naturally and smoothly. I would highly recommend this book. In fact, I highly recommend all of Tony Hillerman's Navajo mysteries!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Hillerman's Still Got It !
Review: Like most Hillerman fans, I have read every scrap that he's written about the goings on in the Navajo nation. I have never submitted an online review before, but I feel compelled to tell readers that this is one of his best. He has certainly not lost his edge in any way. In my opinion, Wailing Wind ranks near the top.
Rating:
Summary: humorous, atmospheric and absorbing
Review: When rookie Navajo police officer Bernadette Manuelito discovers a white man curled in his pickup in a remote gulch and puts her hand on his ankle to assure herself he is dead, she sets in motion a chain of events that reverberates through a murder investigation, rocks her promising future and ratchets up the tension in her budding romance with Sergeant Jim Chee. Manuelito, spooked by the Navajo taboo against contact with the dead, not only misses the bullet hole in his back, but fills the long wait for the ambulance by making a botanical survey of the area, depositing her seed collection in an old tobacco tin she finds lying on the ground. The FBI throws a fit at her mishandling of the crime scene - and they don't even know about the tobacco tin. Manuelito turned it over to Chee after finding some gold dust in with her seeds. Chee goes to his old boss, retired Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, whose interest is already piqued by the dead man's collection of papers relating to a mythical gold mine which harks back to an old case. Wealthy Wiley Denton, obsessed by that gold mine, shot a con man who tried to rob him when his con went bad. Open-and-shut save for one thing. Denton's young wife went missing the same day. People said she was in league with the dead con man, but to Leaphorn it never quite fit. Manuelito figures prominently in Hillerman's well-constructed plot, as she, Chee and Leaphorn each follow separate threads. Especially elegant is the convergence of Manuelito's tribal sourcing and Chee's police work; their complementary methods dovetailing to further the plot, their own complex individuality and their romantic attraction. But the case isn't solved until Leaphorn unravels the mystery of the ghost wailing heard on the night of the original shooting by some kids trespassing on the spooky abandoned ordnance depot where it all builds to an atmospheric, suspenseful and chilling climax. This is award-winning Hillerman at his best.
Rating:
Summary: Does not disappoint
Review: Wailing Wind does not disappoint. I have come to expect a certain pleasant quality from Tony Hillerman and he succedded yet again. He tells of the Navajo Tribal Police and the mysteries they encounter (including dealing with the FBI) in a way that makes you want to read another page - and another.
Rating:
Summary: A Fast Read. Hillerman always pleases....
Review: The latest from Tony Hillerman is like a visit with old and dear friends. You know you will have a pleasant afternoon, talking over shared memories and good times. In the same way, Hillerman's characters, especially Leaphorn and Chee, are people you know and care about. Some of their actions can be expected, even predicted, because we "know" them and how they are likely to react. Joe Leaphorn has always wanted to solve all the puzzles surrounding an old mystery. For instance, what happened to the beautiful, younger wife of a grizzled millionaire who was found guilty of the shooting of a swindler and sent to prison a few years before the Lieutenant retired from the force? That case had to do with the search for the legendary lost "Golden Calf" gold mine. And for Leaphorn, it is those little things that just keep tickling his mind, even after a lot of years. For on the day of the shooting, Linda Denton disappeared -- not to be seen by anyone in the area again! When Jim Chee brings a departmental problem to Leaphorn and asks for his advice on how to help Officer Bernie Manuelito stay out of career-ending trouble because of a new murder on reservation land, some troubling signs point to a connection with the old case of the missing wife and the Golden Calf mine location. Leaphorn's instincts say that to solve the new murder will require digging into the old one as well. With Tony Hillerman's books, the Southwestern locations are ever present. You can almost feel the sun on your neck, smell the sage wafting on the breeze, shade your eyes to see Turquoise Mountain way off in the distance. Mr. Hillerman's affection for this region and it's inhabitants is a big part of my pleasure in reading each new book. The Wailing Wind is a tightly crafted story that will keep you wondering along with Joe Leaphorn right up to the end.
Rating:
Summary: Chee and Leaphorn do it again!
Review: A good mystery with enough clues to make you feel like you are working on solving it with Joe, Louisa,Jim and Bernie. Not as much info on ceremonial/spiritual traditions this time and I missed that a little. Great read! Mr. Hillerman I love your stories, since I have visited in the Gallup area I can almost feel the thunderstorm building over the distant mountains filling that gorgeous blue sky with tall thunderheads. In this book as in all the others the characters are so real I feel like I could expect to meet them at the Gallup Giant conveinience/gas station and have a cup of coffee with them. We get to know Bernie better and she is charming and 100% traditional Dineh. So when do we get to read about a wedding?
Rating:
Summary: Hillerman is simply the best at what he does...
Review: What can you say when it comes to the writing of Tony Hillerman? This slender book has more of a story in it than some that are twice its size. It is everything that is Hillerman: Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, the ultra-traditional Navajo policeman and his more liberal former boss, now a "consultant"; the amazing undiscovered parts of the Navajo Reservation and the Southwest as a whole; and an especially interesting mystery that could only take place in the "wild" west. Hillerman doesn't paint shadowy figures. They are all right there in the light to be seen and absorbed, good guys and bad. I read a few years back that Tony Hillerman had been ill and when no books came out for a year or so, I was so afraid. But he is still with us and his voice is still the one I'd rather read than anyone else.
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