Mystery Books: Dance Hall of the Dead by Tony Hillerman

Dance Hall of the Dead

by Tony Hillerman

available for purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Half Price Books

"Learning about culture has never been so deadly..."

This is the second book I have read in the "Joe Leaphorn" book series. The first being The Blessing Way. Neither book was all that exciting for me to read (they were group reads on a facebook group I partake in). I do have to say that Hillerman develops though from his first book. He grasps how to make a plot a little more interesting on the mystery angle, but it takes away from the thing that was enjoyable from the first book. In the first book his description of the various areas is richer than what is contained within this volume.

Hillerman's ability to write the mystery aspect of a book felt a bit stilted in "The Blessing Way". He gave you all the pieces of the puzzle far too early and as a result you were left wondering why you were even reading the book, but the same cannot be said for Dance Hall of the Dead. You are left questioning up until almost the final ten pages who killed the victim and why. There have been plenty of hints along the way so you have an idea of who it may have been, but you can't be fully sure until it is revealed. (Just so you know I pretty much had guessed it by the end of the book, but it was more of an OH MY GOODNESS I was right moment instead of knowing in the first chapter) This added a nice layer that wasn't available in that first book. 

The gripe about this book is that Hillerman painted a very vivid picture of the area in The Blessing Way.He can't seem to recapture that description and beauty that was present there here. It may simply be because he is learning how to write an engaging mystery book, but he hasn't found the proper balance between his individualistic style and the genre he is in. I recognize that an author can progress as they find who they are as an author and what charms they bring to the table of a genre. I hope that in subsequent novels that he is able to pull that out of himself because it just isn't apparent here. 

Is the book worth reading? If you want to know more about Native American culture than it is. If you want an engaging mystery novel I would state find another one that might be a little more modern in nature and also more engaging. This will be educational though for those interested in understanding a vastly different culture other than your own. This is one of the truly redeeming qualities of the book series thus far. You will walk away from it knowing something you didn't know. That is always something worthwhile in reading. 

Until next time... Stay Optimistic!!!

Kindle Book Review: "The Blessing Way" by Tony Hillerman

"The Blessing Way" by Tony Hillerman
4 Faerie Points

The mystery aspect of this book was weak in many ways because it felt that he handed us the killer on a silver platter, so there wasn't a lot of guessing as to why the characters were in the dire situations that they found themselves in, but what greatly enhances the rating of this particular book is the sheer immersion into Native American culture that it contains. Hillerman does an excellent job of making these scenes feel authentic, which is important when someone is not totally related to the culture like Hillerman (Hillerman is a white male, but was raised around the Navajo culture in his youth according to additional content in the kindle edition.)

The book tends to focus to heavily on a side character in this first book of Leaphorn, but I imagine it was because he was originally just a side character that wasn't supposed to be that prominent at all in the book but Hillerman was asked to make him a bigger character by his editor. I imagine in the subsequent novels featuring him that he has more of a role and prominence. If you can get past this fact since it is the first novel in the series then you will greatly enjoy what he produces here.

As previously stated the mystery aspect is a little obvious and the moments are not that shocking when certain revelations occur. This still makes the mystery aspect of the book fine in my opinion because not every mystery needs to be a guessing game for the reader. Sometimes it needs to be handing them all the pieces so they can focus on other aspects of the novel, which as stated I think the Native American aspects were what needed to be focused in on in this first novel in the series, so we had a grasp on what the rest of the series would look like. It wasn't the best book I have read this year, but it was a quick read that I completed in one day, which makes it a great book in my opinion because you don't have to sit with it for a long period of time. You can just have a new experience with a new culture in the matter of one day!