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Dance Hall of the Dead |
Author: Tony Hillerman
Published: 1990-03-15 |
List price: $7.99
Our price: $7.99
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As of: November 21st, 2008 01:19:27 AM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 One of my favorites!
I have read several of Tony Hillerman's Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee series. I am now starting over and reading from the beginning. I just read Dance Hall of the Dead and I was very impressed. A great story line that kept me reading long past my bedtime and also kept me thinking after I had finished it. I personally consider this one of his best in the series. Still have more to go and I am looking forward to every one of them.
 Zuni and Navajo religions
This is a reissue of the book from 1973. Reading this reminds you of why Tony Hillerman is such a successful author. The topic of this book is really an introduction to Zuni Indian religion but it is wrapped around a wrapper of a murder mystery and is told through the eyes of Navajo Police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn.
To those who have never read Hillermand before, you are in for a treat. The mix of elements here is fantastic and it makes for a fun read. There are also enough clues strewn about that if you pay attention, you will figure out the main outlines of what is going on.
The book starts with the disappearance of a twelve year old Zuni boy. At the spot where he disappears, a large quantity of blood is found. This launches a search that ultimately discovers the boy's body. The large quantity of blood is because he was almost decapitated. His best friend is a Navajo and that best friend is missing. Did the Navajo kill the Zuni and then run away? Or, did he see something? Lt. Leaphorn is one the case because of the Navajo connection and he tries to figure out where did George Bowlegs go?
One of the most fun parts of reading this book is that it gives you a glimpse into the Zuni religion and compares it to the Navajo religion. If you are not intimate with the two Indian tribes and their differences, this book will give you a taste of the differences between them. There are explanations of some of the religious practices of both religions. In the context of this story, it is good background to what is going on and the ultimate resolution of the plot.
However, Indian religions are not the only thing going on. There are other plots and storylines. For instance, an archaeologist has set up shop in a spot there and is involved in a dig that might have something to do with what goes on. There is also a minor hippie commune there and the people in the commune are just on the outskirts of the law. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies have their own agendas and the whole mix makes for a very satisfying soup.
It is a fun read and I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand why Hillerman is so popular.
Dance Hall Of The Dead
Typical Tony Hillerman mystery:
Good action
Excellent characters
Intriguing plot
Insight into native American culture
The only down side was one of the CD's had a defect, and the player in my car could not read after the first third. I was able to read the disk on one of my computers only. One drive out of five on three computers could read it, none of my CD players could.
I could find no link for customer service on the publisher's (Harper Audio) web site.
Good and interesting read
My first book by this author, and if I get a hand on another I will gladly read it. The mystery plot is quite decent and the cultural background mixed into it makes the reading also a learning experience. It is not a bad thing to pickup bits and pieces of information about topics that one would never make inquiries into. Even though that some experts in the field might argue that the author does not portray the native Indian groups involved in the novel correctly, I think that it is still quite sufficient for a general knowledge, after all if you really want to know about native Indians you would not get it out of mystery novels.
Compare and contrast
George Bowlegs is a curious and unusual Navajo boy. There are certain things George is not allowed to know. Ed Pasquaandi is the Chief of Police, Zuni. He is discussing a jurisdictional dispute with Joe Leaphorn. Leaphorn is summoned to help find George Bowlegs. Leaphorn had had a Zuni roommate his freshman year at Arizona State.
Leaphorn finds that two boys are missing. In addition to Bowlegs there is a Zuni boy named Ernesto Cata. Cata is to be Shulawitsi, the Fire God, in a Zuni ceremony, the Shalako. Leaphorn learns from a younger brother that George Bowlegs is running away from the Kachina, a mask representing ancestral spirits. The younger brother believes that Ernesto is breaking a taboo in talking to George about Zuni rituals.
George had intended to find out about the Kachina in school; but he had run off when he learned that Ernesto was missing and investigators had found blood. Ernesto had stolen something from the archaeologists. Leaphorn interrupts Ted Isaacs, apprentice archaeologist and graduate student, digging at the site of a Folsom hunting camp. He learns that a more senior archaeologist sent the boys away from the site several days earlier and that they had not returned.
It seems that George is studying to be a Zuni, really an impossibility, although a nineteenth century arcaeologist, Frank Cushing, had been made a member of the tribe. George is claiming that Ernesto can make him a member of the Badger clan. Visiting some white people, 'hippies', at a hogan deserted by the Indians since there had been a death there, Leaphorn sees the man-bird, the Kachina.
At the hogan of the Bowlegs family, Leaphorn discovers Shorty Bowlegs, George's father, dead. The hogan of the Bowlegs family is visited by Leaphorn after his observation of the funeral rites for Ernesto Cata who had also died.
In reporting the deaths offically, Leaphorn finds that there are two investigators involved, one from the FBI and the other from the Bureau of Narcotics. Leaphorn is driven to realize that he doesn't respect the FBI agent, O'Malley, and O'Malley doesn't respect him since there is a refusal to share information.
In the end the solution to the deaths, (George Bowlegs dies, too), lies in understanding the essential nature of majoritarian and Indian cultures. Joe Leaphorn is shocked. The reader shares his dismay. The book is a marvel.
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