Review: Cave of Bones

Cave of Bones by Anne Hillerman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This was enjoyable in that you get to visit with some of the Tribal Police from earlier books by Hillerman and her father. But this didn’t have the feel of the earlier books in the series, especially the early Tony Hillerman books. What made the earlier books interesting was the unique characters from the tribal areas, the descriptions of the sparsely populated land, and the plots that greatly borrowed from American Indian traditions. While you get some of the old characters here, they don’t sparkle. The land is well described, but the highlight of this book is lava fields in Winter – not the most cinematic location. The “Indian content” just didn’t seem that interesting here. I had found that the books Anne has written were getting better as she gained experience, but this wasn’t a better one. I already have her next one, and hope it rebounds. I listened to the audiobook version of this, narrated by Christina Delaine. I liked the narration, except for when Officer Manuelitto’s sister calls Chee “Cheeseburger.” She’s being a brat when she calls him that, and the continuing teasing is grating.

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