Talking God Book by Tony Hillerman

The joy of a good book is hard to describe to others. Books evoke different emotions in different people and the book. Talking God is no different in that regard. This book has received notable reviews. The book is written by Tony Hillerman and is available in most book stores.

This is another of Hillerman’s Navajo books that feature the characters Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. This book is another murder mystery in the setting of Washington D.C. and the American Southwest. The two main characters come to Washington after being asked to help in a murder investigation that involves Navajo artifacts. The novel, like many of his books, centers around the murder investigation but also on the clash of Native American culture with white culture. The white people have taken and stored a ceremonial mask that depicts the powerful Navajo Yeibichai or main God. The background theme of the book is the struggle of the Native American Navajo tribe’s attempts to recover the religious and ancestral artifacts that came from the Navajo culture that are housed in the vast collections of the Smithsonian Institution

The story has the two main characters, Navajo Police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Officer Jim Chee, following a Smithsonian employee, Henry Nighthawk, back to Washington D.C. after he is suspected of grave robbing sacred bones of the Navajo nation. The book starts out in the Navajo nation but quickly shifts to the Smithsonian Institute where the two Navajo officers stumble onto a murder while attempting to arrest Mr. Nighthawk for grave robbery of Navajo sacred bones. The book lives up the past books by Mr. Hillerman for its colorful blending of Native American culture into a story filled with suspense and vivid imagery.