HUNTING BADGER, by Tony Hillerman, HarperCollins (288 pages, $26).A confession: I could not care less whodunit in a Tony Hillerman book. I'm not a mystery reader, so I'm always surprised by the identity of the bad guy and how he committed the crime.
But I read every Hillerman mystery voraciously. He's part travel writer and part spiritual guide to the Navajo nation, a wordsmith who captures with simple elegance the stark beauty of the Four Corners landscape. His books let me spend a few hours in the hot, big-sky Southwest. The mystery is a bonus.
Hillerman's latest, "Hunting Badger," is as satisfying as any of his previous mysteries. The setup: A retired police captain working as a security guard at the Ute Casino is shot to death during a casino robbery. The other rent-a-cop, an off-duty deputy sheriff, might be involved in the crime. The thieves grab $486,911, swipe an airplane and are far gone by the time a manhunt gets under way.
Or are the culprits actually hiding out in the Utah-Arizona borderland canyons? Hillerman stalwarts Jim Chee, a sergeant in the Navajo Tribal Police, and his old boss, retired lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, crack the case by using people skills, faith and geographic and cultural knowledge instead of computers, cutting-edge forensics and neat-o gadgets.
This is the ninth Leaphorn-Chee pairing, and what rewarding characters they are. Leaphorn can't bring himself to stop sleuthing and enjoy being retired, and Chee continues to wrestle with being a traditional Navajo in a modern world. "Hunting Badger" deepens their sometimes antagonistic, always respectful relationship.
Hillerman's characters often stop to contemplate a sunset or reflect on their culture, adding a spirituality and respect for nature that balances nicely with crime fighting. If you're a frequent Hillerman reader, keep your U.S. atlas handy. Hillerman's vivid descriptions become more real if you can see where everything is taking place.
Then sit back and try to guess whodunit.