Another Jim Chee novel. No Leaphorn. I thought the villain was somewhat cartoonish and not well drawn. Otherwise, crisp narrative. Not one of Hillerman's stronger efforts. 3.5 stars.

This book, published in 1984, takes readers into Navajo country where Hosteen Joseph Joe, an elderly Navajo man, sees Albert Gorman, a Navajo who lives in Los Angeles, shoot a man in the Wash-O-Mat and then drive away although he also was seriously wounded. Jim Chee, an officer with the Navajo Tribal Police, is asked by the FBI to help find Gorman. Before this case is solved Jim Chee will travel to Los Angeles and, as usual, find himself torn between the traditional culture of the Navajo people

Tony Hillerman delivers another gem of a mystery. Jim Chee struggles with the pull of his tradition set against the love of a woman who is not Navajo. I thought the Leaphorn books couldn't be matched, but Chee is able to carry the book on his own. I'm enjoying revisiting the series and filling in the gaps of the books I haven't read.

Another excellent yarn from Tony Hillerman. "The Ghostway" features Jim Chee on the case looking for a lost granddaughter, and a witness who is in the witness protection program. Things start off with a bang with a shooting outside of a laundry mat. With one man down and another hit, the investigation is on. Chee to his chagrin ends up having to go to Los Angeles to track the girl. Shortly there Chee ends up in the hospital with a concussion thanks to one of the gangsters in Los Angeles. It's in...

I can't seem to concentrate on reading right now so I am zipping through audiobooks. This is a Jim Chee story & a good one, although I prefer them set entirely in New Mexico/Arizona. This one has a lot of the action & bad guy characters in Los Angeles. Although Jim Chee even noticed the Los Angeles landscape, although, of course, it couldn't compare with his Navajo scenery. I liked how Chee memorizes landscape and goes back in his mental bank of beauty to refresh his soul. Navajo culture seems

I wasn't all that thrilled with certain parts. I didn't like the way animals were treated in this one. I guess the mystery made sense. I am not sure I followed all the logic in his final conclusions. I also question that a teen could act so decisively and successfully, against a seasoned killer, although I do see how easy it would be for that killer to disregard a teen. But twice? For such a professional, that seems unlikely. I was also impatient with how much time was spent on Chee's agonizing

Another fine novel by Tony Hillerman. I just enjoy his descriptions of the four corners area. This time Chee is investigating the murder(s) of Navajo's who were relocated from the reservation to Los Angeles and return to Navajo country. A Car theft ring and witness protection play into the plot. It is a fun and fast moving mystery.

The bad guys in this one just don’t work—particularly the hitman, who’s a cartoon, and who interrupts the interesting parts of the story. But Jim and Largo and the LA cops and Bentwoman Tsossie, and, especially, Margaret Sosi make this a terrific read.

Chee strolled along the fence, looking at the five who lined the porch. This was a side of white culture he'd never seen before. He'd read about it, but it had seemed too unreal to make an impression - this business of penning up the old. The fence was about 6 feet high, with the topmost foot tilted inward. Hard for an old woman to climb that, Chee thought. Impossible if she was tied in a wheelchair. Los Angeles seemed safe from these particular old people.Another fun, quick read from Hillerman

I am slowly working my way through Hillerman's books. The Ghostway has Jim Chee looking to find out who killed Albert Gorman, what happened to his brother, and dealing with a runaway girl from a private school. Somehow they all seemed tied together but Chee is struggling with how, or why.I wasn't all that sure about Chee when he was first introduced, mostly because he was so conflicted about his place in the universe - should he stay on the Navajo reservation or should he take a job in the white...

Gripping, plus you receive a lesson on Navajo Indian culture. Tony Hillerman has a brilliant a way of incorporating very ordinary things into a suspenseful story- - it makes you think any of the characters might be you!

I'm not sure if it's just me, but I felt like this book was a bit disjointed. It took me a couple of pages to realize Chee had left the Shiprock area and had gone to LA. I felt like I was missing some detail. The conclusion did wrap up everything and answer my questions, but I still felt like the story-line was a bit choppy.

A little too modern for me. Involves a trip to Los Angeles and a shantytown development. Needless and uncharacteristic time is spent on antagonist development, including a horrific scene where he breaks into a mansion and leaves a macabre scene behind. I missed the Hillerman gentleness of earlier mysteries; the focus on our protagonists and the development of their lives, the sharing of different southwest Native American cultures, the drawing of the southwest landscape.Many, many thanks to Fred...

Hosteen (elder) Joeseph Tso is finishing his laundry at a landramat in Shiprock, when a stranger asks him to look at a picture of a man and wants to know if he's seen him. He hasn't. Another car drives up, and the man asking the question guns the second man down. SGT Jim Chee follows the trail of the first car to the hogan of Ashie Begay, and finds the man presumed to be Leroy Gorman, buried, almost in Navajo tradition, but not quite. His training as a Navajo holy man spots the errors in the bur...

I reread this for old time's sake and for the popsugar challenge and I have to say this one didn't hold up as well as one might like. It's fun to read something in the days before internet/gps/DNA in crime solving. On the other hand way too much time is given to Chee's personal drama.Let's deal with this drama first. Even when I read the whole series back in the 80-early 00s, I preferred the stories where Jim is with Joe Leaphorn as it feels more balanced. Joe isn't in this one. Jim's signature

audio Hoopla Digital Did not excite me......easy to put down I want Joe!

I'm really glad I gave Hillerman another shot, because I really enjoyed this one. The mystery was solid, just complex enough to keep the brain synapses crackling but not so much that the thread was lost. Lots of good Navajo lore, weaved into the story in a really tight way. Starts with an altercation in the parking lot of a laundromat in Shiprock that leaves one man dead and another wounded, on the run. Tribal Policeman Jim Chee initially teams with the Feds to find the missing man, but when the...

Read as an audio book. I really enjoyed this installment. These books just flow for me - they aren't action packed, there aren't high speed car chases, there aren't any gun battles with glass exploding everywhere, there aren't any huge explosions hurling cars and people topsy-turvy. These are thoughtful "thinking" mysteries, where our protagonist, Jim Chee, has to reason out what happened, why it happened, and who might have done it. In The Ghostway, Chee is struggling with Mary Landon, his girl...

At the time I'm writing this, Amazon has somehow managed to link the reviews of Tony Hillerman's "The Ghostway" with the reviews of his "Sacred Clowns" (each product page shows the reviews of both). So, just to make sure, this review is about "The Ghostway" (the 6th in his "Leaphorn & Chee" novels and the 3rd (and final?) purely Jim Chee novel). I'm not as happy with this book as I have been with the earlier books. First, much of the story takes place in Los Angeles. Second, and not to put to fi...

In high school I was basically obsessed with Tony Hillerman books. Not really sure why, but I was. I tried to read all of his books in my school's library. The only thing I didn't like what I couldn't really figure out the order of the books, and so I read them out of order. These books are great. They are from a point of view from a cop who is caught between two words: Navajo and white. He treads back and forth between those lines, trying to find a balance while solving murders. Tony Hillerman