I fell in love with Tony Hillerman’s books a long time ago. When his daughter Anne picked up the franchise after his death, I was not expecting a lot. Sequels written by children or ghostwriters often fall short. Lost Birds is now Ms. Hillerman’s ninth book featuring the familiar characters of Joe Leaphorn, Bernadette Manuelito, and Jim Chee whom her father created. I can say unequivocally I have transferred my membership in the Tony fan club to his daughter Anne. Most of her first eight books increased the stage time given to Bernadette Manuelito and her husband Jim Chee (Cheeseburger) with Joe Leaphorn retired but lurking in the background as a helper. Lost Birds now brings him back into well-deserved prominence.
It opens with Leaphorn receiving a phone call from a
Navaho, Cecil Bowlegs, who asks for help in locating his wife. She had been working
at the Indian School where Bowlegs was a janitor and now has vanished. Before
the call can be completed, a loud explosion cuts it off. The explosion pretty much destroys a building
at the school and inside it is a car that contains a body. Bowlegs fears the bomb was aimed at him because he was in arrears
on some gambling debts and goes on a runner himself. Meanwhile, Joe Leaphorn has another client who has
been adopted out of the native community and is now trying to re-find her roots. She is one of the lost birds alluded to in the title. While Leaphorn
looks for Bowlegs and tries to help the woman, Chee, and Manuelito become
involved in the bombing investigation and apparent murder. In another subplot,
Leaphorn’s significant other meets with her estranged son and finds that pulse-pounding
danger can lurk even for elderly cops and their loved ones.
The tragic history of the "lost birds" is the glue that holds
all this together. It added new information for me. I was aware of the problems
with Reservation Schools of the past that tried to eliminate tribal history in
favor of Western European culture, but I had little knowledge of the program
that removed Native children from their
natural tribal communities and offered them up for adoption by Non-Native
couples.
No Hillerman book, father or daughter, would be complete without a reverence for
the Dine community and the land on which they live. If you have traveled to the
Four Corners area or even if you have just seen pictures of it, you will find Anne Hillerman's geography faithful and her description of the land as captivating as her father's. I recommend you start her series now and bet you will be hooked and start looking for copies of the first eight as soon as you finish this one.
Definitely a 5 out of 5
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