Stargazer
What begins as a typical day for Officer Bernadette Manuelito―serving a bench warrant, dealing with a herd of cattle obstructing traffic, and stumbling across a crime scene―takes an unexpected twist when she’s called to help find an old friend. Years ago, Bernie and Maya were roommates, but time and Maya’s struggles with addiction drove them apart. Now Maya’s brother asks Bernie to find out what happened to his sister.
Tracing Maya’s whereabouts, Bernie learns that her old friend had confessed to the murder of her estranged husband, a prominent astronomer. But the details don’t align. Suspicious, Bernie takes a closer look at the case only to find that nothing is as it seems. Uncovering new information about the astronomer’s work leads Bernie to a remote spot on the Navajo Nation and a calculating killer.
This gripping mystery causes an unexpected rift with her husband and new acting boss, Jim Chee, who’s sure Bernie’s headed for trouble. While she’s caught between present and past, Chee is at a crossroads of his own. Burdened with new responsibilities he didn’t ask for and doesn’t want, he must decide what the future holds for him and act accordingly.
Anne Hillerman
When I was a youngster, I remember grownups asking if I wanted to be a writer like my father, Tony Hillerman. I lied and said no, but secretly I did. My Dad was my hero. He went to work in the morning and came home with something wonderful---stories. At first, they were stories of the news he had covered as a journalist; then stories of the students he taught at the University of New Mexico and, finally, stories of the joys and challenges of his ultimate career as a mystery fiction writer.
Stories have been like oxygen to me from the time I was old enough to climb onto a welcoming lap and snuggle up with the storyteller. My parents shared their deep passion for reading: something vitally important to a potential writer. They also shared their sense of adventure. My five brothers and sisters and I would pile into the family station wagon for trips exploring the Southwest.
From hearing and reading stories, the next step was writing my own. I started with true stories for student publications, then wrote and edited for newspapers, radio newsrooms, and magazines. That segued into opinion columns, feature stories and reviews, and then to travel guides and other non-fiction books.
After Tony Hillerman died in 2008, I got the happy idea to write a novel that would keep the stories he created alive by putting his characters to work solving new crimes. One of his minor characters, Navajo police officer Bernadette Manuelito became my central protagonist.
Here I am, many novels later, amazed and delighted at what these characters still have to say. And eager to see what happens next.
Leaphorn & Chee
Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, Navajo tribal police officers in the southwest USA. Series has been taken over by author's daughter, Anne Hillerman, after his death.
Leaphorn & Chee consists of twenty-six books and series is set to expand with the upcoming release of one more book. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
