Tony Hillerman’s “Skinwalkers” is the seventh installment of his loosely connected crime series, Leaphorn and Chee Navajo Tribal Police.
The book follows tribal officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee as they attempt to solve a series of murders on the reservation while also trying to solve the attempted murder of Chee. The first chapter shows Chee being shot at in his trailer, and the book only gets more tense from there.
I have been slowly getting increasingly into mystery novels, and I think “Skinwalkers” has gotten me more invested in the genre. The novel’s central characters are dynamic, interesting, cunning and intelligent, which only makes the book more enjoyable as they struggle to figure out who or what is causing so much chaos on the reservation.
The novel delves into Navajo mythology more than some of Hillerman’s other books in the series, but it does not take away from the storytelling, and it strengthens the motivations and convictions of the main characters immensely.
“Skinwalkers” is a fun, if not slightly macabre book and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in mystery novels, detective fiction or police procedurals.
Rating: 9.5/10
