Tangled Web UK Review June 1999
The First Eagle by
Tony Hillerman
pbk out May 00
(HarperCollins)
at £5.99
Joe Leaphorn, Legendary Lieutenant of the Navajo Tribal Police, has retired and finds time hanging heavy on his hands. So when he gets a call from a rich elderly woman whose granddaughter has disappeared inside the reservation, private investigation seems an attractive alternative.
Catherine Pollard was a biologist investigating an outbreak of a potentially devastating variation of the bubonic plague, and she was last seen heading for a remote area on the same day a Navajo cop was murdered there. Not that she's a suspect, according to Leaphorn's former colleague Jim Chee, who caught the Hopi killer red-handed.
With his usual consummate story-telling skill, Hillerman opens out the world of the Native American to our understanding, while never losing sight of the need to tell a gripping, mystifying tale. Leading edge science blends with ancient tribal myths in a cunning plot peopled by a fascinating array of complex and credible characters. Hillerman has delivered another masterful delight of a book.
(
Val McDermid
- Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill)
