Good day to all of you who read my blogs! May God bless & keep you through your life!
I’m doing something new with this blog today! I’m going to review a book, one from another author. To begin, I am a fan of Tony Hillerman’s books. Tony wrote Navajo/Native American murder mysteries. His stories are notable as Amazon Prime featured a series from his books called Dark Winds with his detective Joe Leaphorn. This was a fun, really good series that TJ & I enjoyed.
Because of Tony’s stories, I bought his daughter, Anne Hillerman’s book The Spider Woman’s Daughter. This book follows Jim Chee & Bernie Manuelito’s adventures after Joe Leaphorn has retired. He is attacked & left for dead by an assassin who fortunately doesn’t kill him. Jim & Bernie, both officers of the Navajo Nation Police department, along with the FBI, go on assignment to find the murderer & the motive.
To begin with, I really enjoyed this book. The theme matches Tony Hillerman’s original books perfectly. The action carried me along through the chapters. What I especially liked was the clean, more or less cozy, nature of the storyline. There were no swear words, no sex scenes, & no gratuitous violence. The Navajo history was well researched. This was an extremely enjoyable read. I finished the book in two days, which means I was completely engaged… except for a few editing issues.
I am a picky reader. I think the writing style was less than appropriate, but having nothing to do with the story or the theme. There were too many choppy sentences. There was a lack of the Oxford comma. In my reading, I find this a distraction. I actually stopped reading more than a few times to re-read a section with this kind of grammar. If this is the new way to write, it only serves to distract from the story, especially if you were born before the 1990s.
All that being said, I liked this book. I would give the story 4.5 out of 5 stars for being a very entertaining spin-off from Tony Hillerman’s originals. I would definitely suggest his books first, then certainly they should be followed by Anne Hillerman’s book. Tony’s books on Amazon.
If you’re interested in other book reviews, please let me know. Also, you can find all our books on TJ’s & my pages here at the Mirror Gate Chronicles website.
