Spider Woman’s Daughter

In her first novel, reporter Hillerman successfully revives Navajo policemen Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, last seen in The Shape Shifter (2006), the final book from her father, MWA Grand Master Tony Hillerman (1925–2008). Officer Bernadette Manuelito, who married Chee in 2004’s Skeleton Man, sees a gunman shoot Leaphorn in a restaurant parking lot, but isn’t close enough to stop the shooter from driving off. With Leaphorn comatose, Chee is named head investigator, while Manuelito is officially removed from the case because she’s a witness. Leaphorn’s current job evaluating a collection that the American Indian Resource Center is acquiring may provide a clue to his attacker. The much used getaway car and the odd disappearance of Leaphorn’s anthropologist lady friend, Louisa Bourebonette, may offer other clues. Chee may lead, but Manuelito forcefully injects herself into the case as a desperate killer threatens to strike again. Like her father, Hillerman has a gift for combining history and mystery. Agent: Elizabeth Trupin-Pulli, JET Literary Associates. (Oct.)