★★★★☆ Bernie and Chee vs bombs and developers

Song of the Lion

Anne Hillerman

Song of the Lion is the 21st novel in the excellent Leaphorn, Chee, and Manuelito mystery series by Tony Hillerman and Anne Hillerman. It is Anne Hillerman's third novel. It lives up to the standard set by both Hillermans for this series.

All three of the series title characters, Joe Leaphorn, Jim, Chee, and Bernadette Manuelito, are important point-of-view characters in this mystery. Leaphorn is still recovering from the brain injury he received in Spider Woman's Daughter. His speech is limited, but his friend Louisa bought him a laptop, equipped with a Navajo keyboard. Leaphorn, who was always a bit of a technophobe, is learning to love the way it allows him to function. I found this charming and entirely plausible. He contributes by digging up some relevant history. Bernie and Chee are more directly involved in investigating the central mystery of the novel.

The story begins when Bernie, off-duty and attending a basketball game at her old High School, hears an explosion. It transpires that a car in the parking lot has been bombed. The car belongs to one Aza Palmer, a Navajo man who is acting as a mediator in a negotiation about opening up land in Grand Canyon National Park to developers to build a hotel. This is high-stakes and high-emotion stuff, and ecoterrorism is immediately suspected. Palmer himself was inside the building when the explosion happened and is unharmed.

The Navajo Nation is, of course, concerned about the possible threat to Palmer. Chee's boss, Chief Largo, orders him to act as Palmer's bodyguard during the conference. Both Chee and Palmer hate this relationship, and Chee's struggles to stop Palmer's doing dangerous things are a continuing theme.

I enjoyed this one, because the criminal turns out to be a clever person with deep plans. (That would be a spoiler, but that the publisher's blurb states, "they make a disturbing discovery: a meticulous and very patient killer with a long-simmering plan of revenge.") Song of the Lion thus recalled to me some of my favorite Tony Hillerman, which also involved Chee and Leaphorn figuring out the plans of smart criminals.

The lion mentioned in the title is the North American mountain lion, Puma concolor, Navajo náshdóítsoh, not the possibly more familiar old-world lion Panthera leo. Náshdóítsoh puts in a brief but important appearance, so if you love big cats, that's something to look forward to.

Song of the Lion is an engaging mystery with a challenging bad guy, a worthy addition to an already excellent Leaphorn, Chee, and Manuelito series.

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