Customer Reviews

Sacred Clowns

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Against his editor's counsel, Tony Hillerman switched from nonfiction to fiction writing over 30 years ago, with a story ultimately entitled "The Blessing Way;" introducing an (at the time) new type of hero and a new setting to the realm of the mystery novel - a Navajo policeman named Joe Leaphorn and the world of the Diné, i.e. [Navajo] "people," living on the rugged plains, deserts and mountain ridges of the southwestern Four
Corners Country. From the first book on, Hillerman's novels drew in equal parts on the author's natural gift as a storyteller, his upbringing within and hence, intimate knowledge of the world he describes, and his training as a writer; all of these elements blending into fascinating storylines and vivid and accurate portrayals of the land and its people.

Based on the success of his Leaphorn series, Tony Hillerman then created a new hero and (initially: a second) series set in Dinetah (Navajo country): tribal policeman Jim Chee. But while Joe Leaphorn was married and methodical and seemed, over the course of the years, to have found a way to harmonize Navajo traditions and 20th century American life, the younger Chee, unmarried, initially trained to be a shaman and deeply traditional, yet at the same time drawn to women living in the white man's world, was struggling to find that same sense of balance.

Whether or not Hillerman's unequal heroes were always meant to meet, they eventually did so in "Skinwalkers" and have been solving crimes together ever since, and their disparate tempers and approaches to police work add another level of tension to the stories, in addition to the cultural differences between the Navajo and the world(s) surrounding them, and the tribal policemen's perpetual clashes with the federal authorities. In more than one novel, Hillerman transcends the world of the Navajo, bringing in and contrasting to it the views and traditions of other tribes of the Southwest, not all of them historically on friendly terms with the Navajo (e.g. the Hopi in "The Dark Wind," the Ute in "Hunting Badger" and the Zuni in "Dance Hall of the Dead"). In "Sacred Clowns," Chee and Leaphorn (who has long since gained a reputation as the "Legendary Lieutenant") must delve into the society of Tano Pueblo to solve the murder of a teacher at a Navajo school, which seems to be connected to a death in the pueblo. As they dig through layers and layers of secrets, they again face the skepticism of a society that has had its "issues" with the Diné in the past. Yet, they slowly unravel the mystery surrounding the Kachina dancers ("sacred clowns") at the heart of the story and finally come to an, as always, surprising conclusion.

If you have never read a book by Hillerman and it's important to you to get to know the main characters of a series as they develop over the course of time, you'll have no choice but to go all the way back to "The Blessing Way" and read your way through to this particular book (which in a way makes sense, of course and, given the caliber of these stories and their author, should be a lot of fun, too). But like every good writer, Hillerman provides enough background for Leaphorn and Chee for even a first-time reader to be able to understand and appreciate his heroes and the things that drive them from the context of any of their stories - and I'll almost guarantee that this won't remain your only Hillerman book for a long time anyway: you'll be hooked midway through the tale at the very latest and will want to know more about the Legendary Lieutenant, Sergeant Chee and their people as soon as possible and before long, will find yourself swallowing every other book about them, too. Oh, by the way ... they are still at work together, never mind that Joe Leaphorn retired from the police a couple of years ago; so you should probably also be prepared for new installments. Yet, while I have no doubt that those will all be good reads (so far, there isn't one weak book in the series), "Sacred Clowns" will forever remain one of my favorite stories about Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Sergeant Jim Chee.

Also recommended:
The Joe Leaphorn Mysteries: The Blessing Way/Dance Hall of the Dead/Listening Woman
The Jim Chee Mysteries: Three Classic Hillerman Mysteries Featuring Officer Jim Chee: The Dark
Tony Hillerman: The Leaphorn & Chee Novels : Skinwalkers, A Thief of Time, Coyote Waits
American Mystery! Special: Skinwalkers
A Thief of Time
Mystery! Coyote Waits
The Great Taos Bank Robbery: And Other True Stories of the Southwest
Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir
Navajoland: A Native Son Shares his Legacy (Special Scenic Collection)
Here, Now, and Always: Voices of the First Peoples of the Southwest

I'm not really a mystery buff, so when my book discussion group chose this title to read, I was a little wary. But someone who had read several Hillerman titles recommended his works as much for the cultural portraits they provide as for the mystery element. With SACRED CLOWNS the cultural component is strong indeed: in fact, you could say that the murder mystery is mainly a pretext to explore Navajo and Pueblo life more deeply. Cultural lore comes first, and wrapped up in the text of a pulpy detective novel, it may seem easier to take than, say, a anthropological tome or a socio-political screed.

I found the murder story sketchy and confusing. Perhaps regular readers of the genre would disagree. What I did find compelling were the principal characters, tribal police officers Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, their inner conflicts and their attempts to make sense out of the cultural conflicts they experience. They, and some of the secondary characters as well, are well developed characters, whom you come to care about. What makes the mystery storyline a little less resonant, I suspect, is that we never really get to know much about the victim or ultimately, the murderers themselves. The ending is a bit of a surprise, but primarily because it involves characters we scarcely got to know at all.

Still, I wouldn't rule out reading more Hillerman. As a more or less painless way of acquainting oneself with American Indian culture, this novel can't be beat. Well worth checking out--if not at the cash register, or via email, at least consider borrowing it from the local libary.

After adding *Sacred Clowns* to his "Navajo mysteries" series, Hillerman stepped out of the milieu to write a novel best forgotten, *Finding Moon*, about the fall of Saigon. Sadly, when he returned to the series, something was lost, and the books since have felt almost as if they were being ghost-written for him.

*Sacred Clowns* is the last of the best of these books. Set at the fictional "Hano" Pueblo, it explores history, religion, and antiquities, weaving together environmental issues, intertribal rivalries, and a good, solid story with interesting characters. Chee and Leaphorn are dealing with their respective personal problems, and both stories move forward in promising ways.

This is not the best of the series. That honor goes to *A Thief of Time*, because Hillerman got it all right and it dazzles. It's not the most representative. That would be *Skinwalkers*, I think, and hence its selection for the first Hillerman Mystery Theatre production this fall. And it's not my favorite; that would be *Coyote Waits*, with its surprise ending that brings home the potential for tragedy on the reservation better than any mainstream novel I've read.

But it is a good, solid book, entertaining, educational, densely plotted and well written. Of the books added to the series since, the lastest, *The Wailing Wind*, finally suggests that Hillerman is getting back on track, but if you are new to this remarkable and exciting set of novels, begin with one of the three I've recommended above, then, if you like that, go back to the first or second novel and read your way forward. By the time you jump the gully of *Finding Moon*, you will be prepared to forgive some tiredness in the stories that come after.

Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee will be gone eventually, like Thomas Perry's wonderful Jane Whitefield. I will miss them.

For a complete discussion of the "Indian mystery" genre, check my web site.

Review
By
Judith Woolcock Colombo

Sacred Clowns set within the context of Navajo culture and using the overwhelming physical presence of the Southwest as backdrop, mixes ethnicity, human greed, and romance into an intriguing mystery.

The novel reunites Navajo Detective Jim Chee and Lt. Joe Leaphorn. Chee now part of Leaphorn's two-man Special Investigations Office has been assigned to follow Delmar Kanitewa, a runaway student and grandson of a powerful member of the tribal council.

Chee follows the boy to the Tano Pueblo for a ceremony of koshares, sacred clowns, only to see the ceremony interrupted by a murder. The boy, who is in full site of Chee during the murder at the Pueblo, vanishes. Later it is discovered that he may also know something about another murder, that of shop- teacher Eric Dorsey.

With the boy's disappearance, we are left with the mystery of how exactly the two murders are connected. However, these murders are just the beginning of an intricate plot that involves an unsolved hit and run case, political and religious scandal, and romance for both Chee and Leaphorn.

This is a well-woven story that brings us into the hearts and minds of Hillerman's two very different heroes. The contrast between the lives and characters of the men from their two different methods of problem solving to romancing the women of their choice is as much a part of the story as the mystery itself.

I enjoyed this story very much and was particularly intrigued by the aspects of Navajo culture and tribal law that ran throughout the story. There were some aspects of the methods used, especially by Chee that as both a mystery writer and wife of a retired Sergeant of Detectives, I found questionable. However, I realized that Hillerman is writing as much about a culture as he is about solving a mystery. Police officers like all of us are defined by their culture and act within its bounds.

This is a very enjoyable mystery and I highly recommend it.

I see there is a lot of mixed reviews given for this particular mystery of Hillerman's. Sometimes I buy or pick up his books and I am not sure if I am picking up one I've read before. If I read this one, it was a long time ago...and even if it was a repeat, I enjoyed it.

Hillerman has spent his life in the Four Corners area of the U.S. coming to know the various tribes that have lived there. I think I read his books as much for the background, history, religious knowledge, etc. that Hillerman gives his readers on the Navajos, Hopis, and many other tribes I am not familiar with, though I know about the Pueblo Indians from American History.

The two main characters of his books, Leaphorn and Chee, are both smart men who love their people and the land they live in, and want to see the right thing done no matter what. In this book Hillerman brings up one of worse things that we white people ever did, which was introduce the Native Americans to hard liquor (as a means to control them and get their properties without paying what they were worth). I know it continues to be an ongoing problem since I work within the deaf community and there are a lot of Native Americans born with hearing loss...some from genetics, some from fetal alcohol syndrome, which forms the basis eventually for this book.

I like the way these men handle their lives and their jobs, and wish that more men in all cultures were as honorable and lived by higher moral standards as pertains to how we treat each other.

I found the concept of the use of clowns in this society as a means to point out what the 'people' were doing wrong, in this case, selling their sacred belongings. I thought I knew a lot about Lincoln, but I had no idea he sent these beautiful canes out to the chiefs of these clans recognizing their place in their society. From what Hillerman says it was to keep the Indians from entering the Civil War on either side. I'd like to read more about this.

Karen Sadler

This is a Jim Chee mystery. Chee has been assigned to find a young boy who has run away from school. Meanwhile, a man has been murdered at the school where the boy ran away from. While Chee is on the trail of the boy, the boy's uncle happens to be murdered almost right in front of him. Coincidence? Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, Chee's boss, doesn't believe in coincidences. But there are no clues linking the three incidents. It's up to Chee to figure out what's been happening in case the boy is in danger.

As with all of Hillerman's books, this tale is rich with detail from Navajo culture. Through Chee's eyes, we witness a Pueblo ceremonial and learn about some of the roles tribesmen play during the ritual. Despite the urgency of the situation, Chee must divide his attention between his job and his personal life, between the ethics of his tribe and the law. This book will draw you in from page one.

Against his editor's counsel, Tony Hillerman switched from nonfiction to fiction writing almost 40 years ago, with a story ultimately entitled "The Blessing Way;" introducing an (at the time) new type of hero and a new setting to the realm of the mystery novel - a Navajo policeman named Joe Leaphorn and the world of the Diné, i.e. [Navajo] "people," living on the rugged plains, deserts and mountain ridges of the southwestern Four Corners Country. From the first book on, Hillerman's novels drew in equal parts on the author's natural gift as a storyteller, his upbringing within and hence, intimate knowledge of the world he describes, and his training as a writer; all of these elements blending into fascinating storylines and vivid and accurate portrayals of the land and its people.

Based on the success of his Leaphorn series, Tony Hillerman then created a new hero and (initially: a second) series set in Dinetah (Navajo country): tribal policeman Jim Chee. But while Joe Leaphorn was married and methodical and seemed, over the course of the years, to have found a way to harmonize Navajo traditions and 20th century American life, the younger Chee, unmarried, initially trained to be a shaman and deeply traditional, yet at the same time drawn to women living in the white man's world, was struggling to find that same sense of balance.

Whether or not Hillerman's unequal heroes were always meant to meet, they eventually did so in "Skinwalkers" and have been solving crimes together ever since, and their disparate tempers and approaches to police work add another level of tension to the stories, in addition to the cultural differences between the Navajo and the world(s) surrounding them, and the tribal policemen's perpetual clashes with the federal authorities. In more than one novel, Hillerman transcends the world of the Navajo, bringing in and contrasting to it the views and traditions of other tribes of the Southwest, not all of them historically on friendly terms with the Navajo (e.g. the Hopi in "The Dark Wind," the Ute in "Hunting Badger" and the Zuni in "Dance Hall of the Dead"). In "Sacred Clowns," Chee and Leaphorn (who at this point has long gained a reputation as "the Legendary Lieutenant") must delve into the society of Tano Pueblo to solve the murder of a teacher at a Navajo school, which seems to be connected to a death in the pueblo. As they dig through layers and layers of secrets, they again face the skepticism of a society that has had its "issues" with the Diné in the past. Yet, they slowly unravel the mystery surrounding the Kachina dancers ("sacred clowns") at the heart of the story and finally come to an, as always, surprising conclusion.

If you have never read a book by Hillerman and it's important to you to get to know the main characters of a series as they develop over the course of time, you'll have no choice but to go all the way back to "The Blessing Way" and read your way through to this particular book (which in a way makes sense, of course and, given the caliber of these stories and their author, should be a lot of fun, too). But like every good writer, Hillerman provides enough background for Leaphorn and Chee for even a first-time reader to be able to understand and appreciate his heroes and the things that drive them from the context of any of their stories - and I'll almost guarantee that this won't remain your only Hillerman book for a long time anyway: you'll be hooked midway through the tale at the very latest and will want to know more about the Legendary Lieutenant, Sergeant Chee and their people as soon as possible and before long, will find yourself swallowing every other book about them, too. Oh, by the way ... they are still at work together, never mind that Joe Leaphorn retired from the police a couple of years ago; so you should probably also be prepared for new installments. Yet, while I have no doubt that those will all be good reads (so far, there isn't one truly weak book in the series), "Sacred Clowns" will forever remain one of my favorite stories about Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Sergeant Jim Chee.

Also recommended:
The Joe Leaphorn Mysteries: The Blessing Way/Dance Hall of the Dead/Listening Woman
The Jim Chee Mysteries: Three Classic Hillerman Mysteries Featuring Officer Jim Chee: The Dark
Tony Hillerman: The Leaphorn & Chee Novels : Skinwalkers, A Thief of Time, Coyote Waits
American Mystery! Special: Skinwalkers
A Thief of Time
Mystery! Coyote Waits
The Great Taos Bank Robbery: And Other True Stories of the Southwest
Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir
Navajoland: A Native Son Shares his Legacy (Special Scenic Collection)
Here, Now, and Always: Voices of the First Peoples of the Southwest

Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, Tony Hillerman's crack Navajo investigators, know treachery, deceit, corruption, wickedness, and tribal politics of their fellow Navajos very well. In "Sacred Clowns," Hillerman is in top form, spinning his web of intrigue, murder, and, indeed, mayhem in the Southwest. In addition to a taut plot line, in which Leaphorn and Chee are at their best, Hillerman's penchant for presenting the character of these two is superb. Both are incredibly complex men, yet so vastly different too. A teacher at a local Navajo school is murdered; shortly afterward another murder, this time at the Tano Indian pueblo. With the adroit skill of which his readers have become accustomed, Hillerman unfolds his story with the dexterity of a surgeon. The sacred kachina scenario is one of his finest, as Hillerman evokes the landscape and atmosphere so well. Hillerman seems to have done more for the preservation of the Navajo culture than just about anyone, yet his

story line does not suffer. As the kachinas (sacred clowns) are not what they seem, neither are the murders. This book is refreshing--and compelling--to read! (Billyjhobbs@tyler.net)

Tony Hillerman is one of my very favorite mystery writers. Having grown up in the Southwest, the tribal backdrop for the series has always charmed me. Jim Chee is a deeply spiritual Navajo who is also a tribal policeman. His ability to deal with the spiritual and the physical issues makes for interesting plot twists that add important knowledge about one of our oldest and proudest cultures in North America. Joe Leaphorn, the classic thinking detective, is a good contrast -- drawing heavily on inductive and deductive logic to solve cases.

In Sacred Clowns we get lots of both Jim and Joe, something that all of the best Tony Hillerman mysteries have in common.

What makes Sacred Clowns special is that the plot is a nice amalgam of tribal and nontribal culture, bringing up nice opportunities for contrasts. You'll find yourself fascinated by the way the two cultures are intertwined in this very complex story.

Finally, and most importantly, this is one of the hardest mysteries to solve that I have ever had the pleasure to read. It had me confused right up to the end. I even went back and reread the story to be sure I hadn't suffered from temporary amnesia. No, the clues are all there, but they are really subtle. This is a great thinking person's mystery plot.

If you have never read any of Tony Hillerman's work, you have a real treat in store. You'll be amazed how good this novel is. If you have read lots of his work, you also have a big treat. This is clearly one of his finest novels!

In this gripping mystery, Joe Leaphorn and his younger colleague Jim Chee team up to investigate two murders miles apart. At first glance, the victims have little in common. Eric Dorsey taught shop to Navajo high school students and drove a water truck on weekends to bring water to elderly Navajo living in the remoter regions of the Big Rez. Francis Sayesva was an accountant, a Hopi who lived in the city but who had returned to his native pueblo to participate in a traditional festival.

Jim Chee is particularly upset by the Sayesva death--the man was bludgeoned to death not forty yards from where Jim was sitting, observing the Hopi festival. Jim had made the mistake of forgetting that he was attending the ceremony on police business, rather than for sightseeing. Even though this crime is the province of the feds, Chee can't let it rest.

In the Eric Dorsey case, Leaphorn isn't satisfied by the charges against a friend of Eric's. The man may have been drunk, but he seemed just as surprised by the silver goods that turned up under his trailer as anyone. Leaphorn has learned to mistrust the all-too-convenient "anonymous call". The more he investigates, the greater the tragedy seems to him. Both the murdered men were quiet pillars of the community, giving time, effort and some of their own money towards doing the right thing. The Hopi term for such people is "Valuable Men". In addition, both brought laughter to the people. Eric Dorsey was a bad ventriloquist, but his puppetry brought smiles to children and old people alike. Francis Sayesva clowned for a purpose; in black and white stripes he enacted the part of a koshare, a sacred clown whose antics at Hopi religious festivals are to remind people of their foibles, failings and imperfections. So who took offense at Sayesva's last performance? One person connects these two men, Eric's student and Francis's nephew. But where has the boy disappeared to?

This riveting mystery is one of Hillerman's best. Setting, character and plot are impeccable and in addition, the reader learns something about the native American cultures in the Four Corners region. Hillerman died in October of 2008. This review is one of a series being posted by a grateful fan who found much pleasure not only in reading his works but in visiting the landscape he wrote about. Tony Hillerman is a valuable man in American literature, especially in the mystery genre. This book is one I highly recommend to people who would like to sample his talent.