Skeleton Man (A Leaphorn and Chee Novel, 17) Mass Market Paperback – May 25, 2010

The other reviews give excellent guidance into the readability, plot and position of this short novel in Hillerman's opus. I would like to propose some ideas about what the author is up to here and maybe argue some more for his position as a great American novelist working in a longstanding literary tradition, for despite his choice of serialized characters in action stories there is a special unappreciated quality to Hillerman's work. I am going to use some language and approach of a literary scholar, so if this turns you off, drop out here.This is the first of his novels to use the frame story device. Joe Leaphorn and friends at a cop diner are storytelling between the coffee and doughnuts. Watch out!!! Frame stories regularly encode mythos. We soon run into a story set around the rim of the Grand Canyon that turns upon consequences of an airline crash over the Canyon which leads through a descent of characters into the Canyon, to the ultimate resolution of events that happened before the crash. Sound familiar. You bet. For example, we have seen similar skillful weaving in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. And here are the same literary devices.Hillerman is working with a brilliant blending of Native American and traditional Greco-Christian mythologies. Over and over the vastness of the cavern is stressed. The individual journies in the cavern by innocents and their trades with the "hermit", rewarded with the diamonds that capture the blue of the sky, lead to ascents and eventually knowledge. As the story progresses, resolution of the chaos this knowledge creates demands that the characters venture into the deep, sacred parts of the canyon. One corrupt private detective comes to the rim, but does not enter and so survives his shooting. Knowledge is wrapped in the "Skeleton Man's" teaching - do not fear death, truth is literally hidden in a bone. It is the sacred relic and the diamonds merely lights to adorn it. The Canyon is an underworld, peopled with its own creatures and having its own rules. The shift of the story focus from male characters above the Canyon to female characters inside the Canyon implies a mother earth theme. Those who journey to this underworld with a just cause, safely return, those in balance survive. Bernadette is drawn by the beauty of the Canyon and its place in her memory. Bernie and the pink snake respect each other and pass by. Out of water, she is helped by the old woman. Eventually the 'male' rain, entering the Canyon through the slot, washes away her murderous captor, loaded down with his bag of diamonds. Joanna, clutching her father's bone survives. The wicked perish from lifegiving water. The eventual return to the surface and Jim and Bernie's planned marriage, with the token of the single diamond preserved from the shrine, establishes the cycle of the regenerated order.When you read this fine little novel you will see all this and more. Yeah it's really there. But it is also a thriller.

An old aviation accident over the Grand Canyon left behind stories about a missing briefcase full of diamonds, and the man attached to the briefcase by a steel chain. In the present, Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Sergeant Jim Chee get involved in a reservation case with clues that might point to the missing briefcase. The investigation gets quickly complicated by the presence of one or more bounty hunters after that missing briefcase, and willing to kill to get it."Skeleton Man" is another superb Tony Hillerman mystery. It deftly weaves together the rugged landscape of the American Southwest with the customs of the people who have lived there the longest. The tense ending will have some surprises, especially for Sergeant Chee and his fiancé Bernie Manuelito. Well recommended.

There are few places in the U.S. with as many legends as the tribal lands of the West. In Skeleton Man, Tony Hillerman weaves a fictional tale around a real occurrence-the collision of two commercial planes above the Grand Canyon in 1956.John Clarke is a diamond merchant with a cache of diamonds chained to his wrist. One of these precious blue-white gems is intended for his fiancée, who is pregnant with their child. While flying home, his plane collides with another over the Grand Canyon, and bodies and debris rain down for miles. Clarke's father refuses to acknowledge his son's fiancée or child. Years later, Clarke's daughter, Joanna Craig, sets out to prove her paternity and to claim the inheritance she has been denied. The discovery of two diamonds brings her to the Grand Canyon in an effort to find her father's arm (which legend says was seen chained to the case of diamonds). Her search is not so much for the diamonds, but for DNA. But there are also those who have a lot to lose if Joanna is successful, and they set about trying to obstruct her investigation.Jim Chee, Bernie Manuelito, Cowboy Dashee and Joe Leaphorn are all pulled into the case in varying degrees. They must wade through legends, traditions and 277 miles of Grand Canyon to solve this mystery. Some Hillerman books are better, and some efforts worse-but I enjoy any effort that educates the reader on Native American traditions (which Skeleton Man does provide). Also the information about the Grand Canyon is fascinating. However, it's hokey to think that an arm bone can be found in the canyon decades after a crash.One of the subplots is the impending marriage between Officer Jim Chee and spunky Officer Bernie Manuelito. Jim Chee has been engaged twice before, and as Manuelito starts to get cold feet, we wonder if the third time will really be a charm for Chee.Tony Hillerman continues to be one of my favorite mystery writers, and fans will enjoy Skeleton Man despite some flaws.

Good book

Visited Navajo nation a few years back. I love mysteries and I love how Tony Hillerman incorporates the sights a and culture of Navajo Nation

Excellent plot and good descriptions of the culture and the terrain.

I enjoy the weaving in of the beliefs of the various Native American tribes into the convoluted plot. The descriptions of the flora and fauna, and use of ecosystem of the Grand Canyon in theaction were especially inspired. And it was good to be with Joe and Jim again. Not sure why the earlier books aren't on kindle!!!?!

Not one of his better novels, it has all the usual characters but the plot lacks authenticity and moves along at such a pace compered with the slow build up I have come to enjoy so much in other books! It won't put me off buying another one, just hope he reverts to his previous style. I must try one of his Daughters books to see how that compares, look forward to that!

I think Tony Hillerman's books are absolutely wonderful, I think I have read all of them. I am fascinated not just by his superb plots but also by his descriptions of the landscape and the different attitudes of American Indians and White people. I can quite see why he won an award for his representation of American Indian morals and ways of life. I also really like the characters, very believable. Unfortunately only two of these books are available on Kindle, otherwise I would buy more of them. This one has rather a convoluted plot which was difficult for me to fully understand, that is why I have not given it 5 stars which I would all the others.