Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito are all back for another adventure in the latest novel from Anne Hillerman, The Tale Teller.
The Tale Teller follows Cave of Bones (2018), which came out earlier this year and saw Manuelito searching for an instructor working with at-risk teens who went missing in the rugged lava wilderness bordering Ramah Navajo Reservation near the volcanic landscape known as El Malpais.
This time around, retired Tribal Police Officer Joe Leaphorn is hired to find a priceless artifact, before things go south in a hurry. . . See the plot details and cover art below!
Legendary Navajo policeman Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn takes center stage in this riveting atmospheric mystery from New York Times bestselling author Anne Hillerman that combines crime, superstition, and tradition and brings the desert Southwest vividly alive.
Joe Leaphorn may have retired from the Tribal Police, but he finds himself knee-deep in a perplexing case involving a priceless artifact—a reminder of a dark time in Navajo history. Joe’s been hired to find a missing bill, a traditional dress that had been donated to the Navajo Nation. His investigation takes a sinister turn when the leading suspect dies under mysterious circumstances and Leaphorn himself receives anonymous warnings to beware—witchcraft is afoot.
While the veteran detective is busy working to untangle his strange case, his former colleague Jim Chee and Officer Bernie Manuelito are collecting evidence they hope will lead to a cunning criminal behind a rash of burglaries. Their case takes a complicated turn when Bernie finds a body near a popular running trail. The situation grows more complicated when the death is ruled a homicide, and the Tribal cops are thrust into a turf battle because the murder involves the FBI.
As Leaphorn, Chee, and Bernie draw closer to solving these crimes, their parallel investigations begin to merge . . . and offer an unexpected opportunity that opens a new chapter in Bernie’s life.
Hillerman is, of course, the daughter of prominent writer Tony Hillerman, and she is also an award-winning reporter. The Tale Teller is the fifth book in her series and is currently slated to come out on April 9, 2019. You can pre-order it here, or wherever else books are sold.
Praised as “one of today’s finest book reviewers” by New York Times bestselling author Gayle Lynds, Ryan Steck (“The Godfather of the thriller genre” — Ben Coes) has “quickly established himself as the authority on mysteries and thrillers” (Author A.J. Tata). He currently lives in Southwest Michigan with his wife and their six children.