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The Dark Wind CD Low Price (Jim Chee Novels)

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So far, The Dark Wind is the only one of Tony Hillerman's novels to make it to the big screen, and while the movie is good, the book is even better. Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police is up against drug runners and running into too many dead bodies in this murder mystery set on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. Set against the back drop of the land dispute between the Hopi and Navajo, The Dark Wind explores Indian cultures and values as the mystery unfolds. And for the first time in Hillerman's series of Navajo murder mysteries, the reader meets Hopi police officer, Deputy "Cowboy" Dashee, the perfect foil for Jim Chee. This is one of Hillerman's best!

very little closure.

I've read this book twice now, and I would have to say that it is definitely one of Hillerman's better ones. I love the way Hillerman has characterized Chee with very simple sentences, reminiscent of Hemingway. They make Chee seem like a very uncomplicated, spiritual man, and a very thoughtful person. His verbal responses to some of the people in the book show his cleverness, especially when addressing the Hopi from the Fog Clan, but also show how guarded he can be in his responses. He's a very intelligent man, not your average cop, who is good at tracking and can read impressions left in the ground. To be expected, Chee also takes the tales told by his elders very, very seriously.

I also thought it was interesting to see a glimmer of prejudice from the Hopi people towards Chee. This was something different and a bit unexpected, but from a logical standpoint it makes sense. The Navajo and Hopi people have been enemies long before there were white men who wanted to settle the area.

As I understand it, Hillerman has been praised for his portrayal of Navajo culture. I would think that, if he were making the whole thing up, he would be denounced instead. I found one review here almost bordering on insulting. It seems to me that Hillerman has either done as much research as he could (and that's not hard to do, considering that the Navajoes are the largest population group of Indians left in America--there's an anthropology joke that goes something like "A Navajo family consists of a father, a mother, two children and an anthropologist") or had friends that could give him the information he needs. Hillerman has skillfully woven what he knows into this book. He doesn't use myths lightly--every mention of a myth or legend has a reason for being there. He even weaves in knowledge of Navajo clans, and brings in its importance much later in the book. As I read his books, I get a sense of respect from Hillerman whenever he describes the Navajoes or their culture. He also never uses their culture as a backdrop, there is always a reason for its use.

I would also say that Hillerman may also have an insight into the Navajo way of thinking that most people don't. I would think that a traditional Navajo, raised on a reservation, would have a different mindset than one raised in a city. Reservations tend to be very isolated, as I recall from my visits to Arizona and Utah, so it doesn't surprise me if the Navajoes raised there have a different way of thinking as a result of being raised in a more traditional way. A child's basic patterns are set by age 5, which is long before a child attends school, so the Navajo mindset would be instilled at this point. I didn't find Chee's lack of understanding to be something that Hillerman made up. I thought it was an interesting difference in the way Bible-raised whites (which is where the "eye-for-an-eye" phrase comes from!) and Navajoes see the world.

As for the plot, it's certainly a tangled tale. It's interesting how, in the beginning of the book, Chee has a bunch of cases that don't seem related to each other, but by the end of the book they all tie together. There's only one that doesn't fit, but that just makes it seem more realistic.

I also liked the introduction of Cowby Dashee, although there isn't much characterization of him. I would like to know why he's called Cowboy, but there never was an explanation. His reluctance to give Chee information on Hopi customs emphasizes the Navajo-Hopi prejudice that is present in the book (and I would have to say that it does not detract from the book, but makes Chee's work harder).

The only thing I did not like about the book was the ending. Chee gets rid of the evidence, but that doesn't help in terms of how he was going to explain to Largo what he was doing at the Hopi village in the first place. Considering the type of ceremony taking place in the last part of the book, I'm wondering how Chee got out of the handcuffs. I would have liked to see Largo's reaction to Chee's disobedience. Although the mystery is solved by the end of the book, it still leaves Chee's situation hanging in the balance. He may be out of danger, but he's still between a rock an a hard place.

In all, though, I found this to be one of Hillerman's better novels. He still has a good eye for detail, which really brings these books to life.

Tony Hillerman wrote another winner in The Dark Wind! The mystery unfolds in an exciting manner that keeps the reader on the edge of his or her seat. Hillerman's excellent descriptions of the southwest places you directly in the beautiful land, and his feel for the cultures of the Hopi and Navajo bring to life the people of this region.

The story brings the reader to the conflicting lives of drug runners, DEA agents, thieves, the practioners of the Hopi religion, and white people living with the Hopi and Navajo. Jim Chee as the main character struggles with these conflicts as he tries to solve concurrent mysterys involving murders and missing drug shipments as well as seemingly petty thefts. Constantly in danger, Chee unravels the connections as he dodges those who would do him harm.

On a personal note - I have been reading the Hillerman mysterys in the order they were written and have enjoyed the development of Hillerman as an author. Each tale becomes more exciting and suspenseful. It is a very fun way to read Hillerman and I would recommend to anyone to read the books in this manner.

A plane crashes in the desert; a nearby windmill is repeatedly destroyed; a body is found with fingprints removed; and a pawn shop is burglarized. Jim Chee, Navajo policeman, is on the scene. The DEA suspect him of being an accomplice in the drug plane. The windmill may be a Hopi problem and as far as the Hopis are concerned, Jim might as well be a white man. As is the case with the rest of this series, Chee solves the crimes with a mix of old fashioned police work and noticing when things supposedly done by Navajos aren't quite in keeping with Navajo culture.

I listened to the unabridged tapes and found this a very entertaining read. The mystery may be a bit slow to unravel but that's because Hillerman takes the time to explore the landscape and culture of the desert southwest. That may not be everyone's interest but I enjoyed it.

For those who try to do things in order, this is the second book featuring Jim Chee (Blessing Way is the first) and the fifth in the Leaphorn/Chee series.

The great pleasure of Tony Hillerman's series of police procedurals--featuring Sgt. Jim Chee and/or Lt. Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Tribal Police--lies not in details of procedure, nor cleverness of the puzzle to be solved, nor in particularly interesting characters. Many other series do these things better. What Hillerman really excels at is bringing alive a region of the country, the Four Corners in the Southwest, and an unfamiliar social milieu, the American Indian reservation. His writing evokes the rugged beauty and utter desolation of desert and mesa, and his descriptions of Navajo (and, in this novel, Hopi) religious beliefs and tribal customs portray a truly fascinating culture.

In Dark Wind, Chee must try to solve several cases : the fatal crash of a drug-running airplane; a jewel robbery; and the repeated sabotaging of a local windmill. They turn out, predictably, to be interrelated, and the conclusion is fairly pro forma. But then there's the almost incidental insight into Chee's way of thinking, when he's talking to the sister of the pilot who died in the crash :

'Do you understand "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth"?'

'I've heard it,' Chee said.

'Don't you believe in justice? Don't you believe that things need to be evened up?'

Chee shrugged. 'Why not?' he said. As a matter of fact, the concept seemed as strange to him as the idea that someone with money would steal had seemed to Mrs. Musket. Someone who violated basic laws of behavior and harmed you was, by Navajo definition, 'out of control.' The 'dark wind' had entered him and destroyed his judgment. One avoided such persons, and worried about them, and was pleased if they were cured of the temporary insanity and returned again to hozro. But to Chee's Navajo mind, the idea of punishing them would be as insane as the original act. He understood it was a common attitude in the white culture, but he'd never before encountered it so directly.

Now Hillerman may or may not have this stuff right, who knows. And I may think that many of the beliefs explored are so much hogwash. But somehow, the books give you the feeling that you're fulfilling that annoying old college requirement of "Knowledge of a Culture Other Than Your Own" in the most enjoyable way imaginable.

GRADE : B

Recently I read THE SHAPE SHIFTER by Tony Hillerman and was disappointed by the overall shoddiness of the writing and story. It just wasn't what I had come to expect from, arguably, one of the best writers to come along in recent years. So I went back and read THE DARK WIND. I suppose I wanted to see whether my expectations had become unfairly high or if there really was an appreciable difference between one of Hillerman's early novels and his latest.

What I discovered was absolutely striking. Here in THE DARK WIND was the detail, the thought, the word-smithing excellence and the professionalism that made Hillerman a sensation. Here were the various single threads of plotline that seem, at first, to be so disconnected and unrelated but that, in the hands of the master, are then woven into the fabric of a splendid story. I rediscovered that THE DARK WIND is what I have come to expect from a Hillerman tale and its characteristics are to be found in many of Hillerman's most esteemed works. Here are the allusions to Navajo culture, with its simplicity, charm and mysticism, interspersed with the trappings of the modern world as Jim Chee comes face to face with mystery, murder and witchery. Here were the colors, scenery and the splendor that Hillerman invariably sets as the backdrop to his stories. Here was the literary integrity that I have missed in Hillerman's more recent offerings.

If you've just read THE SHAPE SHIFTER and have determined to take an indefinite break from Tony Hillerman, think again and pick up one of his earlier stories. You might want to do what I did and reread THE DARK WIND!

THE HORSEMAN

Jim Chee witnesses a mysterious plane crash on a makeshift desert runway on the lonely Navajo reservation in Arizona. A body shows up near a Hopi village with the hands and feet skinned. A windmill is vandalized by persons unknown. Storm clouds herald a violent end to a drought that parches the high desert country.

Thus, Hillerman sets the scene for his story, the fifth in the Navajo Detectives series and the second with Sergeant Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police as the main character. "Dark Wind" weaves into the story the religious ceremonies of the gentle Hopi Indians and the antipathy between village Hopi and sheep-herding Navajo. The story is overlaid by the natural splendor of the country and Chee's knowledge of his people and land are crucial to resolving the mystery, while the Federals - the FBI and the DEA - thrash around ineffectively

Hillerman has professed to be a little uncomfortable with his creation, Jim Chee, a young man with a stubborn, rebellious streak, one foot in the Navajo world and the other in the White man's. Chee demonstrates those characteristics in "Dark Wind" and is less likeable as a character than in other books in the series.

"Dark Wind" is a good tale -- but not the best of the series -- with a lot of intriguing insights into Hopi and Navajo folkways and philosophy. If you like the wide-open spaces of the American west, you'll like Tony Hillerman's books.

Smallchief

"The Dark Wind" is a very interesting book. It has a lot of suspense and Hillerman takes you into the book with his descriptions. This book is a murder mystery that keeps you thinking. It also keeps getting weirder as you read.
The book starts with three Hopi Indians walking up a trail and discovering a boot lying in the middle of it. They walk up the trail a little ways more and discover a dead body. The body was reported and picked up some time after the three Hopis discovered it. by the time it was recovered it couldn't be identified. Later in the book Jim Chee (the main character) is told to watch a windmill that has been vandalized two times before. in the middle of the night Chee hears a plane flying low, but cant see any lights from it. a short while later he hears a crash and goes to investigate. When he gets there he finds two people dead and one that is almost dead. He trys to find out what happened form the one that is alive, but he dies before he can say anything.
The book keeps going like this getting Chee mixed up in all of it. Chee knows he didn't do anything wrong, but he is the only one that thinks that he is innocent. Over all I would recommend this book to any body that likes mysteries or that just wants a book that makes you think and makes you feel like your right there with the characters

Hillerman does it once more with "The Dark Wind." An upright boot on a out-of-the-way trail leads to the discovery of a dead man, a man with the skin removed from his hands and feet. It is the beginning of a religeous period and they leave the body undisclosed. A windmill is vandilized and an airplane crashes in a remote area of the desert, Jim Chee sees it happen. Althought he is warned to not get involved, Jim works through the mystery tying the events together with his quiet plodding. "The Dark Wind", another winner for Tony Hillerman, will not disappoint avid Hillerman fans.
Beverly J Scott author of "Righteous Revenge" and "Ruth Fever." Reviewer for Intriguing Authors and Their Books at http://www.funeralassociates.com/authors.htm

Drug runners across the Arizona desert is nothing new for tribal investigator, Jim Chee in Tony Hillerman THE DARK WIND.

Jim Chee is one of the most complex characters in the annals of police procedurals. Hillerman pulls out all the stops with varied clues and problems of the complex clash of culture and the law as Chee becomes a target of greed and sorcery to prevent his from discovering a killer who has scalped the palms and soles of a victim to prevent identification.

THE DARK WIND is the first of Hillerman's novels to make it to the big screen, but the book is much better than the movie. Read the book and then see the film.

Nash Black, author of QUALIFYING LAPS.