"The Wailing Wind"

This is just one of the many novels written by Tony Hillerman. In this book, unlike the others, Lieutenant Leaphorn is retired and Joe Chee is a Sergeant now. Also, there are a couple of new characters to the book. Bernadette Manuelito has been hired as the new officer. Then there is a dispatcher in this novel, which is new. As his other novels, the location begins on the Navajo Tribal Indian Reservations. Since Bernadette is the rookie in the story, she gets stuck with the low and dirty jobs. That is how it always is; the rookie gets the dirty jobs because they have not proven their self yet.

The story line starts out with the rookie, Officer Bernadette, nicknamed Birdie, doing her rounds. The rookie is making sure that people are being served papers, checking on break in at the school, etc. It is not until the dispatcher gives her an extra task to do when her world turns upside down. Once she gets to the site, she finds an abandoned blue pickup, but it is not abandon; there is a dead person in there and she has contaminated the crime scene.

This is a novel that will keep you intrigued and wanting to read the next chapter in order to see what happens next. He writes as if you are right there and you are in the character in the novel. Hillerman gives you a glance of Leaphorn’s testy side in this novel.