★★★★☆ Murder of an astronomer

Stargazer

Anne Hillerman

Stargazer is the 24th book of the Leaphorn, Chee, and Manuelito mysteries by Tony Hillerman and his daughter Anne Hillerman. It is the sixth in the series since Anne Hillerman's 2013 series reboot. In this one Bernie is at the center of the action.

All three of our protagonists (that would be, Bernie, Chee, and Leaphorn) are worrying about their futures and personal relationships. Chee is acting head of the police office where he and Bernie work because Chief Largo is off at a meeting. Largo is thinking of retirement, and Chee is his obvious successor, a prospect he does not at all relish. For several books now Bernie has been thinking about whether she wants to apply to become a police detective. Joe has been invited to participate in a task force to address the problem of lost and abused women. And as usual he's not quite sure how to manage his relationship with Louisa.

So that's all pretty much business as usual. What about the mystery? We begin with a prolog in which Steve Jones, a successful astronomer at the Very Large Array (this is a real radio telescope in New Mexico) has a date with his ex-wife Maya Kelsey. The next morning he is found dead in his car, shot with a bullet from his own pistol. Maya confesses to murdering him. Open-and shut, right?

Well, no, *OBVIOUSLY*. We have an entire novel -- it can't possibly be that simple. No one who knows Maya, including her old high-school friend Bernie, finds her confession credible. Bernie is fighting every other police officer investigating this case, because they want to wrap this up in the obvious way, and she is not buying it. Of course, in addition to looking for the hypothetical real killer, Bernie has the problem of figuring out why, hypothetically, Maya is making a false confession. Jones' professional life as a scientist enters into the question, in a way that I didn't find terribly credible.

Of course, it turns out that Maya didn't do it. The true murderer is pretty easy to spot -- in fact, I was already suspicious when she was mentioned in the prolog.

Overall Stargazer is an average Leaphorn, Chee, and Manuelito mystery, which makes it a rather good mystery novel overall.

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