Tony Hillerman, author of 18 mysteries featuring Navajo Tribal Police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, among other books, died on Sunday in Albuquerque, N.M. He was 83.
The New York Times wrote that "Hillerman's evocative novels, which describe people struggling to maintain ancient traditions in the modern world, touched millions of readers, who made them best sellers. But although the themes of his books were not overtly political, he wrote with a purpose, he often said, and that purpose was to instill in his readers a respect for Indian culture. The plots of his stories, while steeped in contemporary crime and its consequences, were invariably instructive about ancient tribal beliefs and customs, from purification rituals for a soldier returned from a foreign war to incest taboos for a proper clan marriage." It was a remarkable series.
Hillerman was one of the nicest authors we ever met, and he was so obliging in signing copies of his books that one bookseller joked that a rarity in the Southwest was an unsigned Hillerman mystery.