1990; 368 pages. New Author? : No. Book #10 (out
of 18) in the “Leaphorn and Chee” series.
Genre : Murder-Mystery; Native American Fiction; Police Procedural. Laurels : Winner of the 1991 Nero Award. Overall Rating : 8*/10.
It’s
something that will haunt Officer Jim Chee for the rest of his life.
Fellow Tribal Officer Delbert Nez radioed him to tell him he was about
to catch the pesky graffiti artist who had recently started dabbing the nearby
sacred mountains with white paint. The
radio transmissions were patchy – which was nothing unusual in among all the
mountains in the area. But Nez sounded
relaxed, and even chuckling as he told Chee he’d be a couple minutes late for
their nightly rendezvous at the local coffee shop.
But
when “a couple minutes” started stretching out to a much longer time, Chee
realized he should’ve immediately have supplied back-up for Nez, despite the
vandalism seeming to be a minor misdemeanor.
And when he belatedly tore down the dark road, all his fears became
nightmares when he came across Nez’s police car, in flames, with Nez still in the
driver’s seat, dead from a gunshot.
Why
would some petty paint-sprayer resort to killing to avoid arrest?
What’s To Like...
Coyote Waits is my third “Leaphorn and Chee”
novel, the first since 2014. It has the
usual Tony Hillerman literary structure: a mystifying murder on the Navajo
reservation, and a methodical investigation by the two Native American
policemen, in this case, working separately for most of the book. Indeed, in this story, they don’t think too
highly of one another, their limit apparently being grudging respect. Chee is still heavily into “the Navajo way” (he wants to
become a shaman), Leaphorn has long since dismissed the tribal
mysticism as a bunch of hooey.
The
murder-mystery is well-crafted. The
reader rides along as both investigators gradually find clues as to who did
it, and why. There are an adequate
number of twists and red herrings, yet everything unfolds in a sensible order.
As
usual, the story takes place in the Four Corners area of the US, and I was
happy to see one of my alma maters – Arizona State – get a brief mention. Also as usual, the reader learns Navajo words
(“Ya’eh
t’eeh!”), Navajo culture, and the Navajo mindset, as well as some entertaining interplay between mystical forces and cold, hard evidence. This is true for all of the books in the
series, and that’s a real treat.
It
was also fun to once again cross paths with the titular Coyote god. The trickster was also featured in books by
Christopher Moore (reviewed here) and Kage Baker (reviewed here). Things are never what they seem when he’s
around. The storyline moves at a nice,
jaunty pace, and this was a quick read for me, which was just what I wanted.
Excerpts...
“I haven’t
brought up the subject of snakes,” Janet said.
She was brushing the dirt from her hands on her pant legs. “If I do, I hope you’ll try to say something
positive.”
Okay,” Chee
said. He thought for a minute, catching
his breath. “If you like snakes, this is
a fine example of the places you come to find them.” (loc. 916)
Pinto’s eyes
moved across the courtroom, hesitating a moment when they came to the Navajo
panelist, hesitating another moment when they met the eyes of Jim Chee.
Chee looked away,
down at his itching hand.
No one knew
Hosteen Ashie Pinto. The whites didn’t
know him, nor the Hispanics, nor the Apache, nor the Pueblos, nor the Asian. Nor
Janet Pete, nor me. He is a shaman. He is a stranger to us all. (loc. 2309)
Kindle Details...
Coyote
Waits sells for $8.99 at Amazon, which,
coincidentally, is the same price you’d pay for the paperback version
there. The rest of the e-books in the
series are all in the $4.99-$9.99 range, with the majority
of them going for $8.99.
“Things seem random only because we see them from the wrong
perspective.” (loc.
2239)
There
are a couple quibbles. At one point, a(nother)
shooting victim takes time, while dying, to write not one, but two quick
messages in his own blood on the
wall. Shades of Sherlock Holmes! But I find it hard to believe that’s what I’d
be doing with my final breaths.
Equally vexing was what I call the “Perry Mason” ending. Chee has finally figured out the who-and-why,
but frankly, he doesn’t have a shred of proof.
How convenient, then, when the perpetrator fully confesses to the crime
without any coercion whatsoever.
Lastly, and leastly, there are a slew of extra “goodies” at the end of
the book, taking up the final 13% of the Kindle, none of which are worth
spending any time on. Most are just plugs
for the other books in the series.
8 Stars. The quibbles notwithstanding, this was still
a very good book. Add ½ star if you enjoy learning more about the
Navajo way of life.
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