This is Anne Hillerman's second go at continuing the long-running series begun by her father, Tony Hillerman, as the Navajo police force investigates crimes in the Four Corners section of America's southwest. Detectives Chee and his newlywed wife, Bernie Manuelito, are puzzled by a very nervous driver stopped by Bernie for a minor traffic violation. Nearby, an LA movie crew shooting a zombie movie in a scenic part of the reservation stumble upon a recently dug grave. (Even after re-reading the discovery of the grave half a dozen times, I could not figure out where Anne Hillerman had placed it.) There's also a business man promoting a large solar field and a bodyguard for the film's ingenue who manhandles some young female star-seekers. The roughed up sisters drive off the stage, so-to-speak, with their dad near the end of the story without much explanation and certainly no destination.
Which is all to say, that Tony Hillerman's keyboard might be too large to take over. Bernie, Chee, and the Legendary Leaphorn are still warm in our hearts and it is worth reading to learn how their lives develop. But a mystery that brings into a single plot line half a dozen seemingly unrelated crimes and characters spread across the map from Santa Fe to Las Vegas is really only worth a quick take.
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