Monday Mystery Backlist - The Blessing Way
I decided to highlight THE BLESSING WAY today by Tony Hillerman. I have not yet read any of Hillerman's Joe Leaphorn novels, so I'll be starting all the way back at the beginning with this one, published in 1970. Hillerman has been a strong influence on many of today's crime fiction and western authors. The crime fiction community lost this great author late last year. But it is through first-time readers like me that the love of his work will continue to prosper and his legend will live on.
In THE BLESSING WAY Joe Leaphorn has to deal with a body found along the side of the road, believed to be dead from an alcohol overdose. Leaphorn has his doubts, though, he sees too many signs of witchcraft to be convinced. THE BLESSING WAY blends the Navajo lore into the America culture, examining the world of Navajo witchcraft.
Have you already read THE BLESSING WAY? Feel free to leave your comments and enhance the Monday Mystery Backlist title this week.
A Sidewinder Publishing edition of THE BLESSING WAY (ISBN: 978-0914001133) was released in hardcover in 2007; Harper reissued the paperback (ISNB: 978-0061808357) in May of this year; and the audio book version, read by George Guidall is available from Recorded Books (ISBN: 978-1-4281-4952-6).
1 comments:
A big fan of Hillerman's Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee mysteries. Love his development of the characters over the series. The concept of solving crimes by (in part) allowing an attunement to what's out of alignment with hozro/harmony is quite refreshing in the genre. Also liked how gracious he was over the years as people pointed out early errors & misunderstandings of Navajo & other tribes' cultures & spiritualism & how he incorporated corrected info into later books.
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