Skeleton Man

By Tony Hillerman

Don’t miss the TV series, Dark Winds, based on the Leaphorn, Chee, & Manuelito novels, now on AMC and AMC+!  

“In his masterly reworking of this powerful myth, Hillerman creates a kachina for contemporary times. . . . No wonder Hillerman’s stories never grow old. Like myths, they keep evolving with the telling.”— New York Times Book Review

From the enduring "national and literary cultural sensation" (Los Angeles Times) Tony Hillerman, a crackling tale of myth, mystery, and murder featuring the legendary Leaphorn and Chee.

Though he may be retired, Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn hasn’t lost his curiosity or his edge. He’s eager to help Sergeant Jim Chee and his fiancée Bernie Manuelito with their latest case—clearing an innocent kid accused of robbing a trading post. 

Billy Tuve claims he received the precious diamond from a strange old man in the canyon. Could it be one of the gems that went missing in an epic plane crash decades earlier? Now that it may have resurfaced, it’s attracted dangerous strangers to the Navajo lands. 

Proving Billy’s innocence won’t be easy. Leaphorn, Chee, and Manuelito must find the remains of a passenger who died in the crash—one of 172 lost souls whose remains were scattered across the magnificent tiered cliffs of the Grand Canyon.

But nature may prove their deadliest adversary. To find the proof they need, the detectives must battle a thunderous monsoon and a killer as they plunge deeper into the dark realm of the Hopi Lord of Death—the guardian of the underworld known as Skeleton Man.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Mar 17, 2009
• ISBN: 9780061801877

Tony Hillerman

TONY HILLERMAN served as president of the Mystery Writers of America and received the Edgar and Grand Master Awards. His other honors include the Center for the American Indian’s Ambassador Award, the Spur Award for Best Western Novel, and the Navajo Tribal Council Special Friend of the Dineh Award. A native of Oklahoma, Tony Hillerman lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico, until his death in 2008.

Reviews for Skeleton Man

[sandyamcpherson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This novel suffered from a descent into a somewhat formulaic Hillerman plot: criminal activity on tribal land, this time set in the Grand Canyon country with the villains being white folk. Interesting twist: Navajo police tracking down why one of their people had a $20,000 diamond in his possession. The beautiful scenery descriptions were evocative as ever, but there was little of the Navajo culture woven into the story. The author's accurate telling of Navajo traditions and the difficulties faced by the people in keeping their traditional ways are one of the main draws for me and that was missing. The mystery was interesting but dragged out too much.

[pmaurer_11 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Always interesting, but I hate to hear of Leaphorn getting old.

[buffalogr · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It is a light read with an imaginative story line. Narrated, as always by George Guidall.Characters were familiar, which makes a good read. Of note, Chee and Bernie are working out the details of their upcoming marriage. Oh and there were a few bad(der) guys who kept getting in the way, but in the end got their comeuppance.

[rosalita_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Oh, Jim Chee. How I will (not) miss you when I'm through with this series. The whiny Navajo Tribal Police sergeant is finally engaged to Bernadette Manuelito, a woman who seems much more suited to deal with his BS than the other two women he made an idiot of himself over in previous books. And yet, STILL WHINING! As a bonus, we get some navel-gazing from inside Bernie's head, too, as if one of them dragging the plot to a screeching halt wasn't enough. The mystery, involving a mid-air collision of airliners over the Grand Canyon and a suitcase full of lost diamonds handcuffed to a dead man's severed arm, was not as interesting as that description makes it sound, since the crash was decades earlier and the arm is a mere skeleton. But the setting, on the floor of the Grand Canyon, was really interesting and the physical description made me feel like I was there. So that's something, anyway.

[morrise.graham · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Tony Hillerman is one of my all-time favorite authors. Skeleton Man is a mystery set in the backdrop of the Navajo Nations, focusing on retired LT Joe Leaphorn of the NTP coming out of retirement to help SGT Jim Chee solve an old mystery of a jewel robbery. As usual, the story weaves the Navajo culture into the story, making it fascinating. Hillerman's ability to describe the scenes and people along with his ability to weave a story makes this a great read!

[lyndainoregon · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Though listed as a Leaphorn and Chee novel, Joe Leaphorn barely figures in this one. In it, Chee and Bernie Manuelito get drawn into a deadly contest between two factions searching for diamonds lost in a decades-old airline disaster that sent two commercial planes and everything they held plummeting into the depths of the Grand Canyon.It's certainly an interesting plot idea, and the descriptions of the canyon are superb, but the strong Native traditions of so many of Hillerman's Leaphorn & Chee novels definitely take a back seat in this one.

[setnahkt · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

SPOILERSIf you aren’t familiar with Tony Hillerman, he’s an Albuquerque newspaper reporter who has been writing a series of mystery novels about the Navajo Tribal Police for 30+ years now. The protagonists of the early novels alternated between Sergeant Jim Chee and Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn; in the more recent ones, Leaphorn (now retired and a private investigator) and Chee generally collaborate (although initially seeming to work on unrelated cases).
With my contact with the Navajo limited to driving on I40 and stopping for fry bread, I can’t personally vouch for Hillerman’s authenticity; however, he has won an award from the Navajo (Special Friend of the Dinee) for accurate and sympathetic portrayal of Native American life. He’s also been criticized by notorious pseudoIndian Ward Churchill, which I would assume is something of a badge of honor in itself.
On the minus side, Hillerman’s been accused of being antiscience. Scientists appearing in Hillerman novels are sometimes the villain; if not, they are often portrayed as cold and uncaring “superbrains” (that term is actually used once). Forensic science is always a background process; if Hillerman needs some fingerprints or pollen analysis or whatever to advance the plot, it’s done by sending evidence off to “the lab” and waiting for a written report to come back. Hillerman’s eyewitnesses, on the other hand, are astounding; they can typically remember minute details of events that happened decades earlier. And they’re always accurate.
The first novels in this series are the best in terms of plotting and suspense; with time Hillerman has become increasingly formulaic. The latest, Skeleton Man, (well, the latest I’ve read) continues this trend. The premise is intriguing enough; the collision of two airliners over the Grand Canyon in 1956 results in a missing persons case 60 years later (I’m just barely old enough to remember that crash from TV reports; it was the largest loss of life from any US airline accident up till then and resulted in commercial airliners no longer being able to use VFR flight rules). However, the recent Hillerman pattern quickly emerges: a wealthy Anglo supervillain (described as “a member of the Anglo-Saxon, Nordic ruling class”), greedy and arrogant Anglo subordinate villains, Indian falsely accused of murder, incompetent FBI, even a repeat of the deus ex machina,/i> flash flood that ended an earlier novel (I’m not going to tell you which one; bad enough that I’m spoiling this one). At least there aren't any evil scientists. The redeeming feature of the recent novels has been the continuing development of the reoccurring characters; series novelists can do something with this that “mainstream” literature can’t (what, I wonder, happened to Oliver Twist as he grew up?). Worth reading if you’re comfortable with Jim Chee’s beat-up trailer or Joe Leaphorn’s coffee; get it from the library unless you're OCD about having them all in a neat row on your bookshelf.

[lbswiener · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Skeleton Man is really a Chee and Bernie book. Nevertheless, the book is good. The characters are all believable as well as the situations that the characters find themselves having to solve. There is slight humor in the suspenseful novel. The book is highly recommended and quite deserving of four stars in this review.

[pussreboots · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Skeleton Man by Tony Hillerman and performed by George Guidall is the penultimate book in the Navajo Mysteries series. Retired Lt. Joe Leaphorn is put on the scent of a missing cache of diamonds after a diamond is stolen from the local trading post. A Hopi man is accused of the theft when he tries to pawn a similar diamond for $20.While the Hopi sits in jail, stories surface about a lost briefcase of diamonds, as well as a denied inheritance. Those who want the diamonds, as well the woman who wants her rightful piece of her father's estate both go in search for these diamonds. They relate to a 1956 plane crash over the Grand Canyon. A diamond courier was on board. When his body was recovered, it was missing an arm and the attached briefcase. That case was reported spotted later in the Colorado river, tied up on some debris. But it was gone by the time the authorities were there to recover it.Chee, researching the Hopi's claims that he was given the diamond, crosses paths with Leaphorn's investigation into the Trading Post robbery. Both cases rely on stories passed down through the generations, there is a lot of repetition of the events of the crash, as well as the report of the old man with the diamonds. For readers who don't like this level of repetition, I suggest either skimming these sections or skipping the book all together. Personally, I think the repetition worked well here, both thematically and for dispersing clues.

[auntieknickers · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Although I can't fault the plotting, I feel that I now read Tony Hillerman's books more to keep up on what's happening with Jim Chee, Joe Leaphorn and Bernie Manuelito. Still, well worth the time spent.

[ffortsa · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Typical Hillerman, with Joe Leaphorn in a supporting role as the legendary retired lieutenant and Jim Chee still on the force. The story centers on the results of a mid-air collision of two aircraft in the 1950s, lost diamonds, and the rapacity of greedy Easterners, and features Jim and Bernie and Cowboy Dashee.

[joannsmithainsworth · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Slumped in the middle via repetition, but always interesting characters solving am interesting mystery.

[mmtz_82 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Tony Hillerman returns to the bookshelf with this tale based on a 1956 plane crash in the Grand Canyon. While Jim Chee is suffering a little anxiety over his forthcoming marriage to Bernie Manuelito, Joe Leaphorn is called in for a consultation. Leaphorn digs up old memories and, with Chee, an old case. As always, Hillerman’s characters are as welcome as old friends.Published in hardcover by Harper Collins.

[tjsjohanna_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In a bit of a departure, this story is framed. It also takes place in a relatively short period of time. Leaphorn plays a very minor part in this story (sadly). I liked seeing Chee & Bernie - what they were both thinking about in terms of their coming marriage - what they were worried about and what they were hoping for. The mystery included a bit of interesting history (a horrific crash over the Grand Canyon in the 50's).

[5eva5 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Decent enough story, but the true appeal of the Chee/Leaphorn mysteries are their details about Navajo and Hopi life, culture, and myths, and this one has very little of any of that. I'd recommend any of the other books in this series, but you can stay away from this one. I have a feeling this (17th) is the last of Hillerman's Chee/Leaphorn stories, and even if it isn't, it's probably the last one I read. The story is a little too convoluted, and its solution pretty predicable. Too bad, I've always enjoyed these characters.

[essfair · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Outsiders are a big part of this mystery. Their actions result in problems that Leaphorn and Chee must deal with. When a friend of cowboy Dashee gets arrested for stealing a diamond that he claims was given to him by an old Indian, Dashee asks Jim to help him prove his friend is innocent. This chain of events gets Leaphorn remembering a diamond an old trader claimed to own. Are they real diamonds? Where did they really come from? Were they lost during a major disaster involving two passenger planes? And why are so many Easterners suddenly interested in the diamonds? Leaphorn does most of the thinking while Jim, Dashee and Bernie are involved in most of the action.

[clark7hallman · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Navajo County Deputy Sheriff Cowboy Dashee’s cousin is accused of stealing and pawning a large diamond. Sargent Jim Chee, Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn (ret.) and Chee’s fiancée Bernie Manuelito work together on this case, and prove that the diamond is connected to a plane crash that took place in the Grand Canyon area fifty years ago. A diamond dealer was among the 172 passengers who died in that plane crash, and he had a case of diamonds handcuffed to his wrist at the time. His body was never found but someone had seen a severed arm with the case attached to it, which had been washed away by the canyon water before it could be obtained. The diamond dealer was planning to marry a woman who was carrying his child and their engagement ring was among the missing diamonds. Unfortunately his father did not approve of the fiancé and refused to give her, or the child, any of the estate. After the man’s father died the woman kept trying to obtain a fair share of the estate for her daughter, but the family’s attorneys prevented it and controlled the large estate. Now the daughter is grown and when she heard of the severed arm being spotted she realized that DNA from it could prove that she was the diamond dealer’s daughter and she could receive a portion of the estate of her father. However, the unscrupulous attorneys who controlled the estate, where willing to do whatever was necessary to prevent her from finding that arm. Leaphorn was the narrator of this story and he did not play a large role in it. However, he visited his old friend, McGinnis, at the trading post which had been a hub of activity for many years, but now was abandoned, except for its owner, McGinnis. Leaphorn lamented about the loss of old friends and how things had changed. This novel seems be bringing the Leaphorn and Chee adventures to an end. Pat and I wonder whether it may be the last in the series.

[alibrarian_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An okay way to pass some time, but nothing to highly recommend. A little tighter than some other of his recent mysteries, but nothing like the first Leaphorn/Chee mysteries. As others have said, the native American culture is no longer central to his plots, only background color. I wish he had stayed more with Leaphorn's handling of his retirement which seemed central at the beginning, but simply disappeared as the book wore on.

[lcrouch_9 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Although not great literature, Tony Hillerman delivers a tight story around characters one has come to consider family over the course of his writing.