The Shape Shifter

Tony Hillerman is a wonderful writer. His writing paints a beautiful description of culture and place. His mysteries weave fascinating plots. I've learned a lot about the Navajo Way from his books. I highly recommend all of his Chee and Leaphorn series!

I enjoy everything that Hillerman wrote in the Chee and Leaphorn series. Ater he died I thought that was the last of the series until the store asked me if I would be interested in The Shape Shifter.
I was ecstatic and ordered immediately. I read it in a few days- whenever I found time- and wished he wrote more or better yet had not died.

Tony Hillerman is one of my favorite authors. This is the first book-on-CD of his I've purchased, but if I find others I will probably buy the as well- unless I have read ithem already. Electronic books are a wonderful way to make driving long distances seem shorter and safer.

Several of Tony Hillerman's latest efforts have been disappointing. He seemed to have gotten away from what his readers loved. Joe Leaphorn was playing second fiddle to several other characters; there was less of an emphasis on Navajo rituals, mythology and religion, and in one rendition (THE SINISTER PIG) he'd gone so far as to leave the reservation altogether.

Apparently Tony has been listening to the criticism, because in THE SHAPE SHIFTER Joe Leaphorn is back at center stage, the mythology is back, and Joe spends most of the book driving around the reservation, giving us a good look around. Some of the great minor characters are back as well, the best of which is Grandma Peshlakai, who was greatly irritated with Joe as a young man when he couldn't find the thief who'd stolen her buckets of pinyon sap.

Shape shifter is just another name for skinwalker and there's another one on the prowl in Hillerman's latest mystery. The newly retired Leaphorn is trying to find out why "Woven Sorrow," a Navajo rug supposedly worth in the neighborhood of two hundred thousand dollars which supposedly burned in a gallery fire, seems to be hanging on a wall in LUXURY LIVING, a magazine he's been shown. Hillerman's description of the rug and the story behind its weaving gives him an opportunity to wax poetic about Navajo mythology. We're also treated to a mini-sermon on Navajo religion. The Navajo elders had condemned the rug because it violated the Navajo tradition: The Dineh taught its people to live in peace and harmony, and the rug seemed to be harping on past transgressions, including Bosque Redondo and The Long Walk Home.

The plot deals with Leaphorn's efforts to find out whether a serial killer who was supposedly burned up in the gallery fire is still at large. The man who owned the rug in Luxury Living, Jason Delos, soon becomes a figure of interest. Tommy Vang, Jason Delos's Hmong houseboy, gives Hillerman a chance to compare Hmong and Navajo mythology.

Unfortunately the rest of THE SHAPE SHIFTER doesn't live up to the mythology and religious aspects of the book. There's practically no suspense. Hillerman tips his hand almost immediately. Anyone who reads a lot of mysteries will figure this one out twenty pages in. There's also a lot of repetition as Leaphorn spends most of his time interviewing possible witnesses and drinking coffee. He drinks so much coffee it's hard to understand how he ever gets any sleep.

I love you Mr. Tony Hillerman

I want to keep reading your books forever and forever and forever.

I want the characters to live forever.

This is one of your best.

I must confess I think that each book is going to be your best, and then the next one comes out.

I love Joe and Jim and hope to have them in my life forever.

Beth L Roe

Tony Hillerman's Navajo series includes a few of the best books in the genre: Skinwalkers, A Thief of Time, and Coyote Waits, for example. But for some years now, the books have been poorly written and what is more tiresome, miserably edited. HarperCollins obviously doesn't see any reason to clean up a Hillerman manuscript. They ignore contradictions, spelling and grammar errors, mistakes with names, and inconsistencies. And the fulsome reviews that sell the books at the store justify HC's contempt for readers.

This book is terrible. It is full of tired diction. The pat phrase overused in this one is "Lt. Leaphorn, retired": start keeping count when you get bored. It's not as irritating as "the legendary Lieutenant" (which turns up occasionally), but it gets old fast.

The "experimenting" with chronology is simply bad plotting. Joe can't be "retired a few months" if Jim and Bernie are married, except in an alternate universe. And Louisa is apparently not living with him any more, but he's forgotten she ever did, so it's Ok. In fact, maybe we are supposed to think Joe is getting senile, because at one point he ponders that something was "why he had decided to go home"; the problem? He's in a motel room for the night, obviously not "going home."

But the real clincher is the crime itself. As the story develops, we are supposed to believe that an international mega-criminal worth millions would set up an elaborate robbery of a trading post in the middle of the Navajo rez. At the end, Leaphorn mentions the genius of the guy because "he always left no witnesses." Unfortunately, he says this to one of the three witnesses to the trading post crime; in fact, one of three accomplices he spent weeks with and then betrayed to the police. Fortunately, the witness is too polite to contradict him... those Navajos, always polite.

At one point, Hillerman seems to realize that the trading post robbery seems a bit, well, out of character for his mega-criminal. So he quickly does some self-justifying math. He points out that the post took in about $100 a day and they often didn't bank the money for weeks. Oh, that's different. The worth millions arch criminal stakes the place out for months so he can score 2 or 3 grand, for which he commits multiple murders! Not only ruthless and arch, but petty.

Anyone who calls this one of Hillerman's best is insulting him. I have pages of reviews of his books and others like it at my site; this book is embarrassing. With the millions Hillerman has made in the Chee/Leaphorn franchise, he could hire an editor of his own to keep these books up to the standard Hillerman himself set and few have equaled. Instead, he is cranking out feeble imitations of his own work.

Sadly, with the passing of Tony Hillerman, "The Shape Shifter" is his last Navajo Mystery; now I have read every one of Hillerman's Navajo mysteries. Several years ago when Hillerman's daughter Anne wrote 'her' continuation of the Lephorn-Chee series, I decided it best to read or reread Hillerman's canon consisting of the series of mysteries involving Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Sergeant Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police. Now I feel I can read "Spider Woman’s Daughter," Anne Hillerman's homage to her father's very popular Navajo Mystery series. She even subtitled it as "Leaphorn and Chee Novel Book 19."

Hillerman's wonderful series comes to an end with a multi-dimensional mystery involving an ancient weaving, the Vietnam War, a prior trading post fire and death, and the theft of Grandma Peshlikai's two buckets of pinyon sap. At the heart of of "The Shape Shifter" is the mystery surrounding the famous ancient Navajo tale teller rug called "Woven Sorrow;" it is the rug was created to commemorate the difficult and tragic return of the Navajos from captivity at Bosque Redondo. The rug was believed to have burned years previously in a trading post fire in which an FBI's "Most Wanted" fugitive was killed. Finally, Jim Chee and Bernie Manuelito have gotten married and just returned from their honeymoon. Meanwhile, retired officer Leaphorn receives a letter from a police officer with whom he had worked a case with long ago when they were both rookies. Within the envelope, Joe finds a page from "Luxury Living" magazine which depicts a photo of a tale-teller rug hanging on the wall of a fashionable home in Flagstaff. Lephorn is reminded of that fire long ago, which then reminds him of Grandma Peshlikai's two buckets of stolen pinyon sap.

Tony Hillerman's brilliant use of local color captures the simple beauty of Four Corners. His main characters are complex, and yet they remain good and true to their values. Sometimes we discover that Joe Lephorn must make a choice that is not quite legal, however it is morally right. This is the internal conflict that Lephorn faces near the end of "The Shape Shifter." Brilliant series! Great mysteries! If you are a mystery fan, you must give Hillerman a try!

I have read all 18 "Navajo mystery novels" three or four times in order (more for the earlier ones) since discovering them about the time Sacred Clowns appeared. I echo nearly everything good anyone has said about Hillerman's unsurpassed writing in this truly unique genre, which was a powerhouse right out of the box with The Blessing Way. All are extremely good, most are superb, and many are unexcelled. Hillerman truly was the best there is at this sort of writing. (Daughter Anne, trying to cash in on dad with more Navajo mysteries, is just not good enough at it, perhaps the fate of anyone who attempts to equal a master the way someone not bad at composing might try to equal or even come close to genius such as Mozart. And speaking of Mozart, he is a good example of how genius in one generation does not necessarily mean genius in another. Mozart's father, Leopold, was a not-bad composer but nothing like his son.)

The Shape Shifter is an excellent story but not one of those quite at the summit of Hillerman's surpassing talent. Perhaps he was not feeling his best when he wrote it, because certain vexing inconsistencies, such as details of geography, are present in this one for no apparent reason. (I follow, as do many fans, travels of characters in the novels throughout and near the Navajo Nation on my trusty Indian Country AAA map.) Hillerman has introduced little inconsistencies before, but generally he keeps it faithfully accurate. (The one perhaps understandable exception is the fictional Short Mountain and its equally fictional trading post, which in one novel, with detailed travel directions given, clearly is near Blue Moon Bench northwest of Tuba City and near the Grand Canyon, whereas in another novel, it is many miles east-northeast of there.)

Another example of an inconsistency that is not minor is the identification at least twice of Leaphorn's place of residence as Ship Rock when it actually is Window Rock, which is later given as his residence without comment. Could these have been printer's errors? Fairly serious, especially when repeated. Finally, one last and very large inconsistency is Leaphorn's retirement, which in this book has just occurred only weeks before, whereas he had been retired for several years and several novels before this. It is as if Sherlock Holmes, after having lived at 221B Baker Street for his entire career and throughout all the 56 short stories and four novelettes and had known Dr. Watson throughout nearly all of that time, is suddenly made to move to Baker Street from who knows where and is just introduced to Dr. Watson, and this in a story set in 1895. Perhaps the casual reader of Conan Doyle and Hillerman would not mind nor even notice, but the more serious readers of either one certainly would---and, in this case, definitely have noticed.

If one will just increase the degree of suspension of disbelief necessary for any fiction, these things will not be too bothersome, but they do nag at the back of the mind nevertheless, because one cannot help but wonder why Hillerman, normally taking great care with detail, was careless here. If we at least had an explanation. . . . In any case, the rest is great, and if, as some have said, the bad guy was increasingly evident well before the end, the degree of his evil was such as to make up for any lost suspense as to antagonist.

All in all, when I read through the 18 novels, I am only slightly disappointed, and that only a very narrow disappointment, when I complete number 18.

I love Tony Hillerman's writing--but this book was obviously not written by him.

Compare a sentence, a paragraph, a page from this book to one of Tony's: while I have complete respect for his family's decision to keep the series going with his daughter Anne as author, and they may have been legally within their rights to have the great Tony's name on this one, it's obvious to anyone who writes or edits for a living that he didn't write this--and whoever did write it used more trite, corny, cliche-ridden language in one paragraph than the immortal Mr. H. did in an entire book (or three.)

Save your money and re-read THE DARK WIND-- or THE SACRED CLOWNS--or any of the actual Tony Hillerman books.

Well now that Tony Hillerman and his characters are getting a little long in the tooth, what more can he surprise us with? You guessed it; he has written another great novel of mystery in the four-corner area that includes Navajos, Hopis, intrigue, and more.

Retired Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn receives a letter from an old colleague and friend, Mel Bork. It contained a short letter and a picture of a Navaho weaving that was supposed to be destroyed in a fire. Now his friend is missing. Lieut. Leaphorn is slowly sucked in to the mystery of the Navaho weaving and his missing friend; we are also sucked into these mysteries.

As we sit here eating a Navajo taco and overlooking Shiprock, we turn each page of this book carefully to see what new surprises and answers it will bring.

There may be a few faux pas's and misspellings in this book but they are easily overlooked. I still appreciate Tony Hillerman's ability to give us a good story along with descriptions of the area and its people.

I read the book and listened to the six audio CD's read by George Guidall. I met Tony earlier at a Ft. Worth fund raiser. I am looking forwarded to reading the book written by his daughter after his demise.

The Shape Shifter by Tony Hillerman (Three Stars)
This is a slow moving, but well written tale from the Navajo Reservation once again in Hillerman's own slow moving but detail oriented world of Officer (now-retired)Lt. Leaphorn and his protégé and sometimes competitor Sgt. Chee.

In almost laconic fashion the author lays out his plot of the shape-shifting ex-CIA monster who has a bone to pick with three accomplices who are just getting out of prison, having served time for the CIA man's plot. Perhaps they will rat on him, perhaps they will recognize him for what he is, a changeling who has once again assumed a new identity in order to work his criminal wiles on the unsuspecting Navajo population to do them out of an antique Shape-shifter rug.

With a bottle of special-forces maraschino cherries laced with quick acting cyanide or other chemical our villain blithely tops off his Vietnamese cook's cake decorations for those who seem to be getting too close to the truth. Leaphorn narrowly escapes death by poisoning in his own slow moving bumbling but clever ways as he innocently follows a lead to our man in an investigation of stolen buckets of Pinion Pine sap from granny's house. Fortunately he doesn't like fruitcake!>)

Chee stumbles through a nearly squelched engagement to help Leaphorn and the cook hunt down the monster in the hills bordering N. Mexico and Arizona. The ending although justified, shows how it's probably best that old Leaphorn has decided to retire. Tampering with and concealing evidence anyone? Hmm, alls well that ends well unless they find the hidden body. Of course for Hillerman that's always food for one more novel. Not as much of the Navajo lore in this one as I like; a bit jumbled on the final concluding drama. Hillerman can and does do better. Still if it's a long plane ride and you find an old copy on the seat......what the heck.

Lt. Joe Leaphorn has retired from the Navajo Tribal Police and is bored. As a result, he ends up getting involved in some things that he probably should ignore. The plot here is driven by Leaphorn’s intuitions that some things just aren’t right - and that they must be connected for some reason. Since this is a mystery, of course they are connected, and the reader will try to figure out the connections before Leaphorn does. Still, I didn’t find the setup very satisfactory. Too much vague "something is wrong" in place of a tightly-constructed story line.

Some of the murders and attempted murders here also struck me as poorly motivated, especially in light of the very public clue that sets the entire game afoot. Hillerman also puts the story within an unnecessary frame. Events occur while two friends are on their honeymoon, and he tells them the story when they get back.

Other reviewers rightly point out some timeline issues, both internal and external.

The least satisfying entry in Hillerman’s Leaphorn series.

I received this in paperback as a Christmas gift, from the Grinch, apparently. Man, this was a bad book. All talk about action in the past and no action in the present. I slogged as long as I could but had to give up at about 269 pages. I was a going to title this review with a remark about Joe Leaphorn retired and so is Tony Hillerman until I read Tony died before this book was published. Well, now I understand how this narrative can be so tedious–it was written by a pretender and edited by a ten-year-old. Literary-wise, Leaphorn and Chee died with TH. I followed all the early books, binge-reading. This one I could not finish. For crying out loud, Joe, if you want to know whether the stupid cherries are laced with poison, take them to an active cop who can get them analyzed in the lab. No need to poison the birds. No need to handle them and let others inspect them for needle punctures, what three or four times? I am further mystified by the faithful fans of TH. How in the world can you praise this drivel, where the famous Joe Leaphorn totters on the edge of senility, forgets that his main squeeze is already back from her conference, befriends the man who gave him poisoned food and robs his truck, and risks civilians touching poisoned cherries? At least I admit I didn't read the last 60 pages. You should fess up that you didn't read any of it.

THE SETUP
Joe Leaphorn's old friend, Mel Bork, sends Leaphorn a magazine photo which shows an famous old Navaho rug, believed to have been lost in a fire. After Bork has been missing several days, Leaphorn investigates the rug.

PREMISE--contains spoilers
A CIA agent (Perkins) working in Vietnam in the late-1960s siphons off a fortune intended for bribes, and then "retires" to San Francisco. He takes a young Hmong boy (Tommy Vang) with him, whom he essentially enslaves. After several years he apparently becomes bored, and begins a series of petty scams around the country, which involve murders. One of these was of a trading post in the Four Corners area, where he (as Roy Shonack) betrays several accomplices. Unbelievably, about the time they are getting out of prison, (even though still maintaining a home in San Francisco) he (as Todder) opens another trading post in the area (the Four Corners area), which he is forced to burn when recognized, and disappear again. Several years later, for the third time, he (as Jason Delos) moves back to the area, and allows a famous Navajo rug which was allegedly burnt in the trading post fire to be photographed and published in a magazine. The plot could be greatly improved by cutting out one generation of trading-posts, but it still wouldn't be plausible.

CAVEATS
The story begins with a flash ahead, and then steps back and fourth through three earlier time periods. The presentation is confusing.

"Shape Shifter" contains so many serious implausibilities, that if I were to list a dozen or so, readers of this review would object to why I failed to mention a different dozen. It all starts in the beginning when Leaphorn couldn't care less about his missing "friend", but is obsessed with the silly rug. This particular Leaphorn novel is apparently set in an alternate universe where Joe has been retired "for a few months". In the main series, at the time of Jim Chee's honeymoon, Leaphorn would have been retired for 3 or 4 years.

CUDOS
The story of the rug is fascinating, and echos the earlier and best novels in the series. Many elements of the overt storyline reflect the story of the rug. E.g., Billy's enslavement somewhat refects the imprisonment of the Navajos. The concept is bold, and potentially terrific, albeit not fully realized.

THE VERDICT
As a Tony Hillerman fan, it comes as a great disappointment to me to say that "Shape Shifter" is the first Tony Hillerman novel that I cannot recommend.

> Click on “Stoney” just below the product title to see my other reviews, or leave a comment to ask a question.

Well now that Tony Hillerman and his characters are getting a little long in the tooth, what more can he surprise us with? You guessed it; he has written another great novel of mystery in the four-corner area that includes Navajos, Hopis, intrigue, and more.

Retired Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn receives a letter from an old colleague and friend, Mel Bork. It contained a short letter and a picture of a Navaho weaving that was supposed to be destroyed in a fire. Now his friend is missing. Lieut. Leaphorn is slowly sucked in to the mystery of the Navaho weaving and his missing friend; we are also sucked into these mysteries.

As we sit here eating a Navajo taco and overlooking Shiprock, we turn each page of this book carefully to see what new surprises and answers it will bring.

There may be a few faux pas's and misspellings in this book but they are easily overlooked. I still appreciate Tony Hillerman's ability to give us a good story along with descriptions of the area and its people.

I read the book and listened to the six audio CD's read by George Guidall. I met Tony earlier at a Ft. Worth fund raiser. I am looking forwarded to reading the book written by his daughter after his demise.

The Shape Shifter by Tony Hillerman (Three Stars)
This is a slow moving, but well written tale from the Navajo Reservation once again in Hillerman's own slow moving but detail oriented world of Officer (now-retired)Lt. Leaphorn and his protégé and sometimes competitor Sgt. Chee.

In almost laconic fashion the author lays out his plot of the shape-shifting ex-CIA monster who has a bone to pick with three accomplices who are just getting out of prison, having served time for the CIA man's plot. Perhaps they will rat on him, perhaps they will recognize him for what he is, a changeling who has once again assumed a new identity in order to work his criminal wiles on the unsuspecting Navajo population to do them out of an antique Shape-shifter rug.

With a bottle of special-forces maraschino cherries laced with quick acting cyanide or other chemical our villain blithely tops off his Vietnamese cook's cake decorations for those who seem to be getting too close to the truth. Leaphorn narrowly escapes death by poisoning in his own slow moving bumbling but clever ways as he innocently follows a lead to our man in an investigation of stolen buckets of Pinion Pine sap from granny's house. Fortunately he doesn't like fruitcake!>)

Chee stumbles through a nearly squelched engagement to help Leaphorn and the cook hunt down the monster in the hills bordering N. Mexico and Arizona. The ending although justified, shows how it's probably best that old Leaphorn has decided to retire. Tampering with and concealing evidence anyone? Hmm, alls well that ends well unless they find the hidden body. Of course for Hillerman that's always food for one more novel. Not as much of the Navajo lore in this one as I like; a bit jumbled on the final concluding drama. Hillerman can and does do better. Still if it's a long plane ride and you find an old copy on the seat......what the heck.

Lt. Joe Leaphorn has retired from the Navajo Tribal Police and is bored. As a result, he ends up getting involved in some things that he probably should ignore. The plot here is driven by Leaphorn’s intuitions that some things just aren’t right - and that they must be connected for some reason. Since this is a mystery, of course they are connected, and the reader will try to figure out the connections before Leaphorn does. Still, I didn’t find the setup very satisfactory. Too much vague "something is wrong" in place of a tightly-constructed story line.

Some of the murders and attempted murders here also struck me as poorly motivated, especially in light of the very public clue that sets the entire game afoot. Hillerman also puts the story within an unnecessary frame. Events occur while two friends are on their honeymoon, and he tells them the story when they get back.

Other reviewers rightly point out some timeline issues, both internal and external.

The least satisfying entry in Hillerman’s Leaphorn series.

I received this in paperback as a Christmas gift, from the Grinch, apparently. Man, this was a bad book. All talk about action in the past and no action in the present. I slogged as long as I could but had to give up at about 269 pages. I was a going to title this review with a remark about Joe Leaphorn retired and so is Tony Hillerman until I read Tony died before this book was published. Well, now I understand how this narrative can be so tedious–it was written by a pretender and edited by a ten-year-old. Literary-wise, Leaphorn and Chee died with TH. I followed all the early books, binge-reading. This one I could not finish. For crying out loud, Joe, if you want to know whether the stupid cherries are laced with poison, take them to an active cop who can get them analyzed in the lab. No need to poison the birds. No need to handle them and let others inspect them for needle punctures, what three or four times? I am further mystified by the faithful fans of TH. How in the world can you praise this drivel, where the famous Joe Leaphorn totters on the edge of senility, forgets that his main squeeze is already back from her conference, befriends the man who gave him poisoned food and robs his truck, and risks civilians touching poisoned cherries? At least I admit I didn't read the last 60 pages. You should fess up that you didn't read any of it.

THE SETUP
Joe Leaphorn's old friend, Mel Bork, sends Leaphorn a magazine photo which shows an famous old Navaho rug, believed to have been lost in a fire. After Bork has been missing several days, Leaphorn investigates the rug.

PREMISE--contains spoilers
A CIA agent (Perkins) working in Vietnam in the late-1960s siphons off a fortune intended for bribes, and then "retires" to San Francisco. He takes a young Hmong boy (Tommy Vang) with him, whom he essentially enslaves. After several years he apparently becomes bored, and begins a series of petty scams around the country, which involve murders. One of these was of a trading post in the Four Corners area, where he (as Roy Shonack) betrays several accomplices. Unbelievably, about the time they are getting out of prison, (even though still maintaining a home in San Francisco) he (as Todder) opens another trading post in the area (the Four Corners area), which he is forced to burn when recognized, and disappear again. Several years later, for the third time, he (as Jason Delos) moves back to the area, and allows a famous Navajo rug which was allegedly burnt in the trading post fire to be photographed and published in a magazine. The plot could be greatly improved by cutting out one generation of trading-posts, but it still wouldn't be plausible.

CAVEATS
The story begins with a flash ahead, and then steps back and fourth through three earlier time periods. The presentation is confusing.

"Shape Shifter" contains so many serious implausibilities, that if I were to list a dozen or so, readers of this review would object to why I failed to mention a different dozen. It all starts in the beginning when Leaphorn couldn't care less about his missing "friend", but is obsessed with the silly rug. This particular Leaphorn novel is apparently set in an alternate universe where Joe has been retired "for a few months". In the main series, at the time of Jim Chee's honeymoon, Leaphorn would have been retired for 3 or 4 years.

CUDOS
The story of the rug is fascinating, and echos the earlier and best novels in the series. Many elements of the overt storyline reflect the story of the rug. E.g., Billy's enslavement somewhat refects the imprisonment of the Navajos. The concept is bold, and potentially terrific, albeit not fully realized.

THE VERDICT
As a Tony Hillerman fan, it comes as a great disappointment to me to say that "Shape Shifter" is the first Tony Hillerman novel that I cannot recommend.

> Click on “Stoney” just below the product title to see my other reviews, or leave a comment to ask a question.

The Shape Shifter is vintage Hillerman with some rough spots. The story picks up as Jim Chee and Bernie are off enjoying their honeymoon. While they are off in Hawaii, Joe Leaphorn is cajoled out of retirement by an old buddy and acquaintance who is searching for the answers to a mysterious affair that was apparently resolved many years before.

Or, was it?

Almost immediately after the man sends Joe a letter, he disappears. It is not surprising that his body is found soon thereafter and Joe takes off to figure this all out. As usual, there is lots of backstory here and it involves a famous weaving that details Navajo history as well as a minor crime that took place at the very beginning of Joe Leaphorn's career - when we was tasked to find out who stole a couple of buckets full of pinion sap...

One thing leads to another, and we follow the story as Joe Leaphorn conducts his investigation. It is quite clear - to old Hillerman hands - who the villain is and a major part of the second half of the book is wondering how this whole thing will be resolved. Eventually it is and all the various threads are pulled together into a satisfying conclusion.

So, why not give this review five stars and move on?

There are problems here. The main one is of the various timelines. Let me give a few examples:
* Joe Leaphorn retired several years before Jim and Bernie tie the knot - long enough that receptionists at the tribal police HQ do not recognize him or know his name - yet the book talks of him being retired for less than a month?
* The theft of the sap buckets takes place at the beginning of his career - probably 30 to 40 years ago - yet the old woman of that time is not only still alive, she remembers him and gives him grief - but has not spoken to him since that time?
* The theft of the sap buckets was part of a crime that was meant to cover the tracks of a previous crime that took place a dozen years before that. Now Joe solves it? It is a string of some 40 to 50 years...
* There is a major character who is a Hmong. He came to the U.S. in his teens as a result of the Vietnam War. Yet, in the time of this book (early 2000s) he is only in his 20's?
There are more such examples but these give you the flavor. So, that is why I took one of the stars away.

Other than that, this is a typical Hillerman with perhaps less Indian religion in it than most. In an interesting twist, Joe Leaphorn is the one who talks of the various religious rites that the Navajos perform, although in all the previous books he was the non-believer. In this book he does tell us that he misses the knowledge, but it was due to the U.S. government's assimilation program that took him away from his family during his formative years to grow up in a boarding school. Talk about an interesting twist!

Nonetheless, this was an enjoyable romp in the Navajo lands and one can only regret that with Hillerman's passing, this whole series is now finished and we will read no more escapades.

I bought The Shape Shifter just because I ran across it cheap and had always heard great things about Hillerman. I thought I'd give it a shot.

And as it turns out, I'm actually quite glad that The Shape Shifter was the first Hillerman that I read. I will admit that not everything about the plot coheres with reality. It's a little difficult to believe that the villain would be motivated to commit the crime that he committed. And it was especially unlikely to me that a man as sensible as Leaphorn would make some of the stupid decisions that he makes in the novel. I think, though, that I was largely willing to forgive Hillerman for the flaws that detract from the novel because it was my first Hillerman book (and I wasn't used to the high standard of his other mysteries) and just because I enjoyed the novel anyway.

I enjoyed many of the things that everyone loves about his novels. The atmosphere of the southwest and the reverence with which Hillerman treats Navajo culture are powerfully woven into the story. The details about Navajo weaving are especially rich in The Shape Shifter. And the character of Leaphorn himself, who even on the first reading feels like an old friend, simply carries the story. I could enjoy any novel featuring Joe Leaphorn, even one with a worse plot that this.

I have moved on to reading other Hillerman novels, and those have so far been better than this one. But I still remember The Shape Shifter fondly, as a novel with plenty enough of Hillerman's charm to be satisfying.

As a mystery novel, I enjoyed Hillerman's development of his main character and his companions. Too often, many of the mystery-thrillers are too concerned with the action and development of a good twist or the evilness of the antagonist. However, Hillerman takes the time not only to add substance to his characters, good or bad, but also to the villain of the novel, in effect adding to the mystery. The story also has some interesting connection to Navajo traditions and religion. Hillerman describes these well while narrating the story, not taking too much from the developing mystery, but giving the reader sufficient connection to Navajo history. His description of the main character's investigation and his techniques integrated with his Navajo heritage is well done.

For the audio portion, the reader was well selected and narrates a good story. He does a good job conveying the patience and concerns of an older generation, which many of the characters are a part. It enhanced the narration of the story.

This is a fantastic tale about a belagaana version of a ye-ne-L o si (see title). Right, Hillerman gives us a generous dose of Navaho lore in this last story of the legendary Lt. Leaphorn. This retired and bored officer of the Navaho Police is showing his age, as was Hillerman. Their memory, skill, and physical condition are weakening. In the story, Leaphorn has his curiosity aroused by the reappearance of a famously cursed tale-teller rug, supposedly incinerated in a trading-post fire--along with an F.B.I. Most Wanted--decades ago when Leaphorn was a young cop. Very strange: how came it to its rich new owner? Various bits of rumor and evidence suggest there is a very devious killer somewhere about who meticulously leaves "no clues" behind, but always collaborators(!) left holding the empty bag. Leaphorn's protegé, officer Jim Chee, plays a small role; in fact the story is mostly told to him by Leaphorn as one long flashback (although I had a bit of trouble distinguishing present from flashback). No wonder Leaphorn is so careful in what he will tell Chee, for his solution to the crimes is highly ethically ambiguous, and loose ends (e.g., a dead elk) might come back to trip him up--if there is a sequel. You may feel lost in the desert if you have not read earlier volumes in this atmospheric series, or disappointed if you remember the good ones too well, but only just until Hillerman draws you deep into the dusty Arizona-New Mexico rural milieu.

I've read everything Hillerman has written and just adore it all. Unfortunately, the other reviewers who have noted flaws in this book are correct. It's just not well written. The phrase "wry smile" ocurrs again and again. There are outright contradictions - Louisa B is gone, comes home but then Leaphorn wonders when she'll come home. She already did! Worse, Leaphorn walks into the climatic ending with no plan and seemingly no concern that he has no exit strategy. Without ruining the book, Leaphorn (a cop) could have saved everyone a lot of trouble by getting the police involved and confronting the villain with a warrant. I guess a positive ID at the police station instead of out in the backwoods isn't very dramatic.

I'll read anything Tony H writes but he can do better than this, and if he can't, his editors need to help him. This is a disappointing book that could've been very good. I'd give it one star but can't bear to do that to a Hillerman book. so a very generous two stars it is ...

It sure seems like Hillerman is now reaching too hard for these novels. What used to be complex interweavings of character, setting, and plot, executed with great skill, are now more like sketches of two or three of those elements. And the skill is not really saving things (sometimes because it seems to not be there any more).

This book has some welcome improvements over the last few, but it's not nearly as good as the early books in this series. The trading post rug story (especially the old woman who was more concerned about her sap than the murders) was fine. But the villian being a CIA operative from the Vietnam war just didn't work. And his favorite method of killing people was even more silly, especially since it left behind easily traceable evidence. On the other hand, when Joe Leaphorn had that evidence in his hand, he ... did nothing with it. Huh?

The book reads like the second draft of what could be one of the great Leaphorn books of the past, but rushed into print before the next two drafts cleaned it up.

Like many others, I anxiously anticipated Tony Hillerman's new book, THE SHAPE SHIFTER. I anticipated a book that would be a worthy addition to my Hillerman library but found, within just a few pages, that the book was...well...in a word...and I hate to say it...tiresome!

As so many other reviewers have already noted, the book flows about as well as a frozen river. It lacks Hillerman's usual attention to meticulous detail and is rife with all sorts of mental lapses and unfortunate blunders in rudimentary story telling. I was also extremely disappointed when Hillerman determined to revisit a part of his past that has never really provided a successful platform for one of his novels: his ties to Southeast Asia. From incongruities in timing to unbelievable scenarios, THE SHAPE SHIFTER is a disappointment.

I could go on and on and on regarding the story and plot and what is supposed to do but other reviewers have already done a fine job of that. What we apparently have here is an author who is seemingly resting upon his laurels. That's all I can attribute it to. Yes, it happens, but, given his past professionalism and prowess, I never thought that it would happen to Hillerman.

So there it is. If you're a Hillerman aficionado, as am I, go back and read SACRED CLOWNS, THE GHOST WAY, SKINWALKERS or THE WAILING WIND. If you're new to Hillerman avoid this one and start reading his novels in order from the beginning.

THE HORSEMAN

I listened to an audio book reading of Tony Hillerman's novel, The Shape Shifter, on a recent car trip. It was very entertaining. I have not read many of these novels, so I have no back history with Lt. Leaphorn and his Northern New Mexico Navajo milieu to "clutter" my reaction. The miles melted away as I listened to this fascinating and fantastic tale. I though it was very clever indeed how the various plot elements were pulled together in the end. And, of course, Hillerman's descriptions of Northern New Mexico lend a colorful background to the story. I was especially amused at how everyone thought that Tommy Vang, a Hmong tribesman from Laos, was a local tribesman. But then, they really are ethnically related, aren't they.

The Shape Shifter is the best novel Tony Hillerman has written in years. This time Joe Leaphorn is the featured character; Jim Chee & Bernie have gotten married &, with a bare appearance, they are off on their honeymoon. Hillerman has seemed to have caught on to the recent fad of doing cold cases. Leaphorn reaches back many years to investigate a case that happened when he was just a rookie. After certain events cause him to recall this case, mostly the reappearance of a Navajo rug that had been presumed th have burned in a fire. A former acquaintance of his has sent him a photograph from a local magazine that has the item in question present. After the mysterious death of Leaphorn's acquaintance he becomes very curious as to exactly what could be happening.

The novel takes quite a few twists before its conclusion. I get the strong impression that something has rejuvenated Hillerman's writing. Mysteries, at times, have a slow pacing, but this one is different. By the time the reader gets to the end Hillerman has taken us through a very complicated maze. There are surprises galore, the biggest one being the ending. All I will say about it is that Leaphorn does a dramatic twist in his behavior. If you've never read Tony Hillerman I would highly recommend The Shape Shifter; this could possibly be the best novel he has ever written.