Shadow of the solstice

Navajo police officers Bernie Manuelito and her husband, Jim Chee, face multiple personal and professional challenges in Hillerman's latest (after Lost Birds, 2024). The couple are managing 24-hour care for Bernie's aging mother, a dead body found at the local radioactive-waste-disposal site, a pending visit from the U.S. Secretary of Energy, the disappearance of a local grandmother and her teenage grandson, a group of fervid environmentalists with dangerous plans, plus Chee having to carry a double workload after his boss suffers a serious heart attack. Luckily, Bernie and Chee have a strong network of friends and family to pitch in. The dead body may be linked to other factors, and Bernie and Chee put themselves in physical danger to nab the bad guys and prevent a high-stakes disaster. Meanwhile, Bernie's sister is on the case of the missing grandmother and grandson, exposing a nasty scam aimed an unwitting Navajos. As for Bernie's mother, there's no easy solution, but with family and friends to help, the burden is decidedly lighter. Hillerman offers a five-star must-read with twists aplenty, a heartwarming human-interest angle, revelatory background on Navajo language, traditions, and history, descriptions of the Southwest's physical beauty, and a satisfying conclusion.

Hillerman nimbly juggles several investigations in her latest crime saga featuring Navajo investigators Joe Leaphorn, Jim Chee, and Bernadette Manuelito (after Lost Birds). When a man's battered body is discovered at an old uranium ore processing facility in the small community of Shiprock, N.Mex., Lieutenant Chee investigates how and why the victim ended up in the restricted area. Meanwhile, officer Manuelito arrives at the enclave of a cult whose stated mission is to save the planet, though she suspects a more sinister undercurrent to their beliefs. Another story line finds Manuelito's younger sister, Darleen, looking into the disappearance of one of her home health clients and the elderly woman's teenage grandson. To top it all off, the entire police department is on edge, gearing up for a visit from U.S. energy secretary Savanah Cooper. Hillerman neatly entwines the disparate plot strands, but the real draw is the kindness, quiet intelligence, and strong moral compass of the novel's central characters. It's another satisfying entry in a reliable series. (Apr.)

The latest afflictions for the Navajo Nation involve a pair of long cons, one big and one bigger, both based on real-life scandals. Melia Raymond is so eager to support her 17-year-old grandson, Droid, né Andrew Morgan, as he enters rehab for his addiction to alcohol and drugs that she tags along with him on the intake bus, allowing herself to be checked in for her own nonexistent addiction. Her decision is a serious mistake, since, under the stewardship of Beatrice Dottson, Best Way Health and Wellness is nothing but a scam designed to rake in government dollars for treatments it has no intention of providing. In fact, many of the guards who make sure the clients surrender their cell phones and stay put till Best Way is ready to turn them loose actively push more liquor on them. Their time-tested strategy doesn't work for Droid, who promptly vanishes, leaving Mrs. Raymond to pair up with his widowed father, Greg Morgan, to search far and wide for him. Meanwhile, Officer Bernadette Manuelito of the Navajo Police faces a grave complication before the promised high-profile visit of U.S. Secretary of Energy Savanah Cooper: Members of Citizens United To Save the Planet, a ferocious activist group, have settled in at the elderly Yazzies' property, building an illegal sweat lodge and planning what's clearly going to be a criminal protest against the scourge of uranium extraction from Native lands. Since the two stories never intersect, their sum total is less a novel than a pair of novellas shuffled together in alternating chapters. Another installment in this venerable series springing from the woes predators have visited on the Navajo Nation. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.