Review:- Tony HILLERMAN – “Dance Hall of the Dead”

Year Published: - 1973
Where the book was from:- My own copy
ISBN: - -
Pages: - 255pp
Genre: - Crime
Location:- Navajo Tribal Lands, USA
How I came across it: - Gift from Carol
Rating: - ***** ***
One sentence summary:- Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Tribal Police tracks the brutal killer of a young boy of the Zuni while, at the same time, a young Navajo disappears.

Describe the plot without giving anything away:- 
Joe is one of six different agencies involved in solving this crime which may, or may not, have been committed by the missing Navajo boy.

General comments:-
I found this less complex a background than The Blessing Way. As a result the interest about the Navajo and Zuni cultures was more easily understood and fascinating. As a thriller it was good but it is the style of writing and the Native American background that make this so readable.

Quotations:
‘Leaphorn came from the Taadii Dinee, the Slow-Talking People Clan. The fathjer of his mother was Nashibitti, a great singer of the Beutyway and the Mountainway, and the other curing rites, and a man so wise that it was said the people of Beautiful Mesa added Hosteen to his name when he was less than thirty – calling him Old Man when he was far too young to be a grandfather....’


‘A boy had been killed without reason. Leaphorn’s rational mind would not accept this. Not even the grasshopper took wing without reason.

AUTHOR Notes:- Tony HILLERMAN see The Blessing Way

Review – Tony HILLERMAN – “The Blessing Way”

Publ: 1970
My copy – kindly given to me by Canadian Chickadee
ISBN: 978 0 06 100001 0
Genre: Crime fiction
Pages: 306p
Recommended by another blogger
Rating: ***** **


What led you to pick up this book?
Recommended by another blogger, it sounded like an unusual form of crime fiction.

Describe the plot without giving anything away.
Jo Leaphorn is a Navajo Tribal Policeman and the action takes place on the Navajo Reservation. Many folk blame a supernatural killer when a young man is killed and Leaphorn finds himself in pursuit of a Wolf-Witch.

What did you think of the characters and style?
This was an eye-opener to me as I learned much about a wholly different culture which lives on in the USA. The characters and style were nothing overly special – solid and down-to-earth - but the plot was good and the setting fantastic.

What did you like most about the book?
The setting.

Was there anything you didn't like about the book?
No.

Thoughts on the book jacket / cover.
OK

Would I recommend it?
Yes as a crime thriller or to anyone interested in learning about the Navajo culture.

Quotations:
“Begay had deliberately postponed thinking about this, because the Navajo Way was the Middle Way, which avoided all excesses – even of happiness.”
“But Navajos didn’t hurry. In fact, there was no words in the Navajo language for time.”


TONY HILLERMAN was born in Oklahoma in 1925. He joined the US Army in 1943 and won the Silver Star, the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster and the Purple Heart after being wounded. After the war he attended the University of Oklahoma and worked as a journalist, eventually becoming editor of the New Mexican. In 1963 he went to graduate school at the University of New Mexico and joined the journalism faculty there in 1966. His first Navajo mystery, The Blessing Way, was published in 1970. He died in 2008.