Tony Hillerman's newest entry is a tightly plotted gem.  We get a good dose of both Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn doing their best work to solve an old mystery that seems to have something to do with a new murder on the reservation.

          Officer Bernadette Manuelito is sent to investigate an apparently abandoned pickup truck in an out of the way gulch.   What she finds is the body of a man who seems to have died of natural causes due to alcohol poisoning.  But when the ambulance comes to pick up the body, a hole in his back proves he was murdered.  Officer Manuelito is accused by the FBI agents who push in to take over the case, of having botched up in securing the scene of the crime.   Her superiors, including Chee, are inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt, since most of them could have made the same mistake from a first impression of the situation at the abandoned truck, but most unfortunately, Bernie had carelessly removed an important piece of evidence from the area around the truck without knowing it's significance.

          Chee is under heavy pressure from his boss to let Bernadette take the fall with the Feds which would effectively ruin her career with the Tribal Police.  He cannot think of any way to help her, except to go to his old friend and mentor, Lieutenant Leaphorn.  Joe Leaphorn is thus put into the perfect position to revisit an old case that had involved the self-defense killing of a con artist by a crusty old local millionaire named Wiley Denton which happened several years prior to his retirement from the force.  Wiley Denton was convicted of manslaughter in the case, readily admitting that he had killed the swindler during a robbery attempt when a business deal concerning a lost gold mine called the Golden Calf went array.  It had always bothered Leaphorn that the beautiful much younger Mrs. Denton disappeared at the same time, never to be heard from again.  Local opinion was that she had been mixed up in the scheme somehow and dropped out of sight to avoid being tied into the probe, but the famous Leaphorn instincts had tickled Joe for the true answer to the elusive puzzle, still unresolved in his logical mind.

           Does this new murder shed any light on what happened in the past?  It is left to Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn to find the answers which will clear the cloud of incompetence from the record of the likable and able Officer Manuelito.  Chee must do this while walking the tightrope of his growing attraction to the vivacious and very pretty Bernie.  How much of his feelings are valid because Bernadette is being unjustly accused of incompetence?  Are his thoughts of personal involvement clouding his judgement in the situation?  At the same time, Bernie is fighting her own demons of doubt about how she feels regarding saving her job and professional reputation and her relationship with Chee, both as her superior and as a man.

          As always, the beauty of the Southwest plays a leading role in the story.  You can almost feel the heat of the sun on your neck, smell the sage wafting on the breeze and have the urge to shade your eyes so you can better see the Turquoise Mountain looming in the far distance.  Hillerman writes with a love of the country and it's people foremost in his mind.  This, above every other element, makes his stories shine.  The Wailing Wind is another good story that will keep you guessing for the answers to the mystery and rooting for the good guys to win.

Carol Abbott, Reviewer

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