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A review by acarman1
The Way of the Bear by Anne Hillerman
5.0
The chronology has always been somewhat skewed in this series. Tony Hillerman set it in the time he was writing so the books take place anywhere from the late 70s to the late 90s, but the characters don't seem to age much so it's hard to tell. Anne has also continued to simply set her books in the current day. So this, her latest offering, takes place post-Covid and refers to that pandemic as well as to the political strife over the Bears Ears National Park. Bernie mentions being happy when Obama made it a National Park, angry when "the next President" reduced the size and happy again when President Biden restored its boundaries.
This is probably the deepest we go into the personal thoughts of Chee and Bernie. Bernie is reeling from missing out on a job she wanted because of seniority and also a private hurt of her own (which is not revealed to the very end but I won't spoil it). Chee recognizes that she is hurting and tries to get her to talk about it, but she doesn't want to. So they are drawn in, on a vacation trip gone wrong, to a battle over valuable fossils. Bernie is shot at during a hike, then helps deliver a baby on in a truck. Chee stumbles on a home invasion gone wrong where nothing seems stolen and the owner of the house is missing, but a mysterious stranger is found dead in the front yard. Love triangles (and quadrangles), corrupt cops, and impending bad winter weather mar the trip as Bernie and her husband desperately try to find the truth and rely on each other. As always, Anne Hillerman's books just breathe the spirit of the Southwest. This might have been her best one yet.
This is probably the deepest we go into the personal thoughts of Chee and Bernie. Bernie is reeling from missing out on a job she wanted because of seniority and also a private hurt of her own (which is not revealed to the very end but I won't spoil it). Chee recognizes that she is hurting and tries to get her to talk about it, but she doesn't want to. So they are drawn in, on a vacation trip gone wrong, to a battle over valuable fossils. Bernie is shot at during a hike, then helps deliver a baby on in a truck. Chee stumbles on a home invasion gone wrong where nothing seems stolen and the owner of the house is missing, but a mysterious stranger is found dead in the front yard. Love triangles (and quadrangles), corrupt cops, and impending bad winter weather mar the trip as Bernie and her husband desperately try to find the truth and rely on each other. As always, Anne Hillerman's books just breathe the spirit of the Southwest. This might have been her best one yet.