Did Chee Arrest the Right Suspect?
I decided to try to squeeze another audio book into my month, and next in line was Coyote Waits, the tenth in Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn and Chee series. Fortunately, one of my library systems had it available, and I was able to revisit the Navajo reservation for another good mystery.
Officer Jim Chee is nearing the end of his shift, but when his friend and fellow officer, Del Nez, doesn’t meet up as they had planned, Chee goes to investigate. Unfortunately, Chee finds Nez shot in his police car, which is on fire. And, Chee also finds a suspect in the form of Ashie Pinto. Pinto is walking away from the scene with the murder weapon, and refuses to say anything. Based on that evidence, Chee arrests him.
The suspect is a member of Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn’s late wife’s clan, so when Pinto’s family asks Leaphorn to investigate, he does. Meanwhile, Chee is hoping to answer a few questions of his own. Like what was Pinto doing so far from home? Why won’t he say anything? Will the two men find the truth?
With the last book, I complained that much of the action took place outside the reservation. While this book wasn’t exclusively on the reservation, it was still in the Southwest, and those scenes outside the reservation made more sense. That’s great for me, since I feel like the setting is one of the characters in this series, and I’ve been disappointed the couple of times we went other places.
On the other hand, I do wish Chee and Leaphorn were working together more. Maybe it’s just my expectations, but they are still very distrustful of each other. Given what they’ve been through and seen in each other when they have reluctantly teamed up, I would expect a little more trust to have developed at this point. And yes, I am aware this is only the fourth book in the series to feature both of them. Still, I feel like they’ve both earned it at this point.
Another thing I was happy to have seen is that Chee appears to be moving on in his personal life.
Overall, I do like both of them as lead characters. Their differences are obvious, but they are both devoted to finding the truth, which I appreciate. The supporting characters we have are well defined as well. Most of them are introduced here, but we get a couple of returning supporting players.
While this isn’t a cozy, the non-cozy content is kept to a bare minimum.
The mystery appeared to wander a bit in the first half, but things came together as we got closer to the climax. I enjoyed some of the twists along the way to the logical conclusion.
I was glad to see that George Guidall was back for the narration this time after taking the last book off. He does a good job as always.
Overall, Coyote Waits is another strong mystery. It’s easy to see why the series remains such a well-respected crime series.
Check out the rest of the Leaphorn and Chee Mysteries.
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