Rating: 
Summary: Too Many Detectives Ruin the Plot
Review: It's never a good sign when a character in a novel predicts the outcome of a plot point with the comment: "since my wife died I've been watching television. That's the way the plot ought to work out."This novel features Navajo Tribal Police Lt. Joe Leaphorn and Officer Jim Chee conducting independent parallel investigations into the murder of a fellow officer. This approach to storytelling fails to satisfy as each investigator comes across the same clues through different avenues, dragging the pace of the story down to a crawl. It also means that neither policeman can be very intuitive because they'd get too far ahead of the other (resulting in obvious detective work being overlooked, much to the reader's frustration). Many reviewers here have commented on the nature of the ending; the plot resolution, while not rainbows-and-unicorns is not nearly as tragic as it has been made out to be. The true tragedy is that Hillerman has spent so much time having his heroes cover the same ground again and again, that he resorts to an ending straight out of an episode of Perry Mason (perhaps the quote above was meant to be ironic, instead of simply coincidental). The book, however, does advance the lives and loves of its main characters, and in this respect it works best. Ultimately, this is a decent Leaphorn and Chee story, but not quite the mystery you may have hoped for.
Rating: 
Summary: "They teach us that everything has two forms."
Review: Jim Chee sits drinking coffee while partner Tribal Policeman Delbert Nez meets his demise. Chee catches the obvious perpetrator. A Navaho shaman, with a bottle in one hand and THE gun in his belt. Case closed. Because of his guilt at not backing up his partner and at the insistence of Chee's on again and off again relationship with the defending attorney, Janet Pete, Chee must find out for him self what happened and if he may have made a mistake.
Because of a relationship through is dead wife with Ashie Pinto's (the defendant) clan and also being pushed by Dr. Bourbonette (anthropologist), who insists that Ashie is being railroaded, Joe Leaphorn but also investigate from a different angle. He is constantly thinking about what his dead wife Emma would say in the situation. Both men are pushed into what looks like an endless amount of overlapping mysteries of which the murder of Delbert Nez is just one. They - and we - must deal with the history of the CIA and that of witches.
Rating:
Summary: "They teach us that everything has two forms."
Review: Jim Chee sits drinking coffee while partner Tribal Policeman Delbert Nez meets his demise. Chee catches the obvious perpetrator. A Navaho shaman, with a bottle in one hand and THE gun in his belt. Case closed. Because of his guilt at not backing up his partner and at the insistence of Chee's on again and off again relationship with the defending attorney, Janet Pete, Chee must find out for him self what happened and if he may have made a mistake.
Because of a relationship through is dead wife with Ashie Pinto's (the defendant) clan and also being pushed by Dr. Bourbonette (anthropologist), who insists that Ashie is being railroaded, Joe Leaphorn but also investigate from a different angle. He is constantly thinking about what his dead wife Emma would say in the situation. Both men are pushed into what looks like an endless amount of overlapping mysteries of which the murder of Delbert Nez is just one. They - and we - must deal with the history of the CIA and that of witches.
Rating: 
Summary: Love the insights into Navaho culture & Res
Review: My first Hillerman but not my last. The characterizations were vivid and complex and the story plot line was curious and interesting enough to keep my attention. Loved Chee.
Rating:
Summary: Coyote is always waiting...wherever you least expect him
Review: One never knows where evil will come from and that is why one must always be on guard or so it seems when you read Tony Hillermans novel "Coyote Waits". It is the authors message that if you seek to do something of an evil nature Coyote is sure to make a meal out of you. I enjoyed this book. Not until the very last had I suspected that a simpe inoccent act of love could develop into something tragic
Rating:
Summary: Deserving of accolades
Review: Right from the moment where a car fire on a dirt road announces trouble with a capital "T," I enjoyed "Coyote Waits" a lot. Hillerman's pace is measured but not sleep-inducing. It was fascinating to see two policemen work in different ways to solve the same crime. The story wouldwould have been memorable for that reason alone, but Tony Hillerman isn't past president of Mystery Writers of America for nothing. As usualwith this author, well-informed asides about Navajo culture and mythology advance the plot and bring characters to life. Thunderheads and Reservation landmarks are described in language as spare and beautiful as the land itself. Even small scenes are expertly drawn. When an old man looks at the floor, we know precisely why. When people talk in a crowded elevator, their words, actions, and feelings have perfect pitch. The end result is not just a mystery, but also a crackerjack police procedural and a poignant meditation on the nature of friendship.
Rating:
Summary: Deserving of accolades
Review: Right from the moment where a car fire on a dirt road announces trouble with a capital "T," I enjoyed "Coyote Waits" a lot. Hillerman's pace is measured but not sleep-inducing. It was fascinating to see two policemen work in different ways to solve the same crime. The story would
would have been memorable for that reason alone, but Tony Hillerman isn't past president of Mystery Writers of America for nothing. As usual
with this author, well-informed asides about Navajo culture and mythology advance the plot and bring characters to life. Thunderheads and Reservation landmarks are described in language as spare and beautiful as the land itself. Even small scenes are expertly drawn. When an old man looks at the floor, we know precisely why. When people talk in a crowded elevator, their words, actions, and feelings have perfect pitch. The end result is not just a mystery, but also a crackerjack police procedural and a poignant meditation on the nature of friendship.
Rating:
Summary: A tragedy, not a mystery
Review: The conclusion of *Coyote Waits* is the most powerful and affecting of all Hillerman's "Navajo mysteries." Leaphorn has his monsters to slay: alcoholism, superstition. They come together here in a complex mystery that begins with Jim Chee botching a crime scene and lead from there through a maze of deception and misdirection. When we emerge into the sunlight, the truth is heartbreaking. For my money, the sentimental best of the series. *A Thief of Time* may be better writing and plotting, and *Skinwalkers* may have the best suspense, but this is the story that will stay with you for days and return to haunt you when you see your next drunken Indian dozing away despair in tenement shade.
Rating:
Summary: Okay Mystery
Review: The story didn't develop a great deal of suspense. Could have used more character development.
Rating:
Summary: Great book but not to the point
Review: The story drug through the first 3/4 of the book, but when the book finally got to the point it was really interesting.The last chapters were kind of confusing but my reading group figured them out.
| 
