Author's Spotlight: Tony Hillerman

Below, in chronological order, are the 21 published novels featuring Lt. Joe Leaphorn and Sgt. Jim Chee.  We have most of these.  Click on the linked title to see more information and our low rental prices.

Mr. Hillerman has written many other works including non-fiction items not listed here.  The information shown here is from the enhanced CD material on the last disc of many of the selections shown below.  To view that information, put the last disc in your computer and wait for a menu to appear.  Included is a Q&A with Mr. Hillerman, a list of all of his published works, photos and other interesting items.

The Blessing Way (Harper & Row): Lt. Joe Leaphorn must stalk a supernatural killer known as the “Wolf-Witch” along a chilling trail of mysticism and murder. Publication Date: 3/11/70

The Fly on the Wall (Harper & Row): A dead reporter’s secret notebook implicates a senatorial candidate and political figures in a million-dollar murder scandal. Publication Date: 9/15/71

Dance Hall of the Dead (Harper & Row): An archaeological dig, a steel hypodermic needle, and the strange laws of the Zuni complicate the disappearance of two young boys.
Publication Date: 10/10/73

Listening Woman (Harper & Row): A baffling investigation of murder, ghosts, and witches can be solved only by Lt. Leaphorn, a man who understands both his own people and cold-blooded killers. Publication Date: 4/19/78

People of Darkness (Harper & Row): An assassin waits for Officer Chee in the desert to protect a vision of death that for thirty years has been fed by greed and washed by blood. Publication Date: 10/22/80

The Dark Wind (Harper & Row): Sgt. Jim Chee becomes trapped in a deadly web of a cunningly spun plot driven by Navajo sorcery and white man’s greed. Publication Date: 4/7/82

The Ghostway (Harper & Row): A photo sends officer Chee on an odyssey of murder and revenge that moves from an Indian Hogan to a deadly healing ceremony. Publication Date: 2/13/85

Skinwalkers (Harper & Row): Three shotgun blasts in a trailer bring Officer Chee and Lt. Leaphorn together for the first time in an investigation of ritual, witchcraft, and blood. Publication Date: 1986

A Thief of Time (Harper & Row): When two corpses appear amid stolen goods and bones at an ancient burial site, Leaphorn and Chee must plunge into the past to unearth the truth. Publication Date: 6/30/1988

Talking God (Harper & Row): A grave robber and a corpse reunite Leaphorn and Chee in a dangerous arena of superstition, ancient ceremony and living gods. Publication Date: 6/14/89

The Joe Leaphorn Mysteries: Three Classic Hillerman Mysteries Featuring Lt. Joe Leaphorn: The Blessing Way/Dance Hall of the Dead/Listening Woman. (Harper & Row) (1st Omnibus edition) Publication Date: 9/13/89

Coyote Waits (Harper & Row): When a bullet kills Officer Jim Chee’s good friend Del, a Navajo shaman is arrested for homicide, but the case is far from closed. Publication Date: 7/18/90

The Jim Chee Mysteries: Three Classic Hillerman Mysteries Featuring Officer Jim Chee: People of Darkness/The Dark Wind/The Ghostway. (HarperCollins) Publication Date: 11/7/90

Sacred Clowns (HarperCollins): Officer Chee attempts to solve two modern murders by deciphering the sacred clown’s ancient message to the people of the Tano pueblo. Publication Date: 9/16/93

Finding Moon (HarperCollins): Moon Mathias discovers his dead brother’s baby daughter is waiting for him in Southeast Asia—a child he didn’t know existed. Finding her in the aftermath of the war brings out a side of Moon he had forgotten he possessed. Publication Date: 10/25/95

 The Fallen Man (HarperCollins): A man met his death on Ship Rock Mountain eleven years ago, and with the discovery of his body by a group of climbers, Chee and Leaphorn must hunt down the cause of his lonely breath.
Publication Date: 12/18/96

The First Eagle (HarperCollins): When Acting Lt. Jim Chee catches a Hopi poacher huddled over a butchered Navajo Tribal police officer, he has an open-and-shut case—until his former boss, Joe Leaphorn, blows it wide open.
Publication Date: 8/5/98

Hunting Badger (HarperCollins): Navajo tribal officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee work two angles of the same case—each trying to catch the right-wing militiamen who pulled off a violent heist at an Indian casino. Publication Date: 11/1/99

The Wailing Wind (HarperCollins): Officer Bernie Manuelito is accused of not being very professional at the crime scene of a dead body in a pickup in Coyote Canyon. Officer Jim Chee takes over and with the help of the not-very-returned Joe Leaphorn manages to connect this killing with an earlier murder and a strange unsolved disappearance which happened two years ago. Publication Date: 5/1/02

The Sinister Pig (HarperCollins): A corpse is discovered at the edge of the Jicarilla Apache natural gas field. The FBI calls it a hunting accident but Sergeant Jim Chee and Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn are not convinced. They set out to uncover a twisted conspiracy of greed, lies and murder. Publication Date: 5/1/03

Skeleton Man (HarperCollins): Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn comes out of retirement to help investigate what at first seems to be a simple trading post robbery. The case turns into a search for the remains of a passenger on one of the planes that went down into the Grand Canyon 50 years ago. That passenger happened to have handcuffed to his wrist an attaché case filled with a fortune in diamonds—one of which turned up in the robbery. Publication Date: 12/01/04