Tony Hillerman, 1925-2008

As you've likely heard, Tony Hillerman, whose series featuring Navajo Tribal Police detectives Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee made him one of the most beloved of American mystery masters, known as much for the atmosphere of his New Mexico settings and the humanity of his characters as for his classic plots, died on Sunday of pulmonary failure at the age of 83. The New York Times has a lengthy obituary, by Marilyn Stasio, and Sarah Weinman is collecting other links to tributes and appreciations, including one that everyone is linking to, a moving story from Deanne Stillman, a student of his when he was beginning the series and who has gone on to write her own books about the West, including the recent Mustang. Here's an attempt at a complete list of his books:

Leaphorn/Chee series:

• The Blessing Way
• Dance Hall of the Dead
• Listening Woman
• People of Darkness
• The Dark Wind
• The Ghostway
• Skinwalkers (the first to bring Leaphorn and Chee together)
• A Thief of Time (his own favorite, according to the Times)
• Talking God
• Coyote Waits
• Sacred Clowns
• The Fallen Man
• The First Eagle
• Hunting Badger
• The Wailing Wind
• The Sinister Pig
• The Shape Shifter

Other fiction:

• The Fly on the Wall
• Finding Moon

Nonfiction:

• Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir
• New Mexico, Rio Grande, and Other Essays
• The Great Taos Bank Robbery
• Talking Mysteries
• Hillerman Country
• Kilroy Was There
• Canyon de Chelly

Children's Books:

• The Boy Who Made Dragonfly
• Buster Mesquite's Cowboy Band

Anthologies:

• The Spell of New Mexico
• The Mysterious West
• The Best American Mysteries of the Century
• A New Omnibus of Crime
• The Best of the West
• The Oxford Book of American Detective Stories

About Hillerman:

• The Tony Hillerman Companion
• Tony Hillerman's Navajoland

--Tom

Comments

[Old Bogus on October 27, 2008 at 06:31 PM]

My wife and I have every one of his Leaphorn and Chee novels. We really loved the culture he portrayed of The People. Our respect for this culture grow exponentially. We have already felt the sense of loss of his writing; now it is more physical.

[Sandra Henderson on January 06, 2009 at 10:06 AM]

I have read everyone of Tony Hillerman's novels, and I too already feel a deep missing of this man who influenced my writing and took my knowledge of the peoples of the southwest far beyond my anthropolgy background.
Thief of Time is also my favorite and my first..