A review by angiec
Lost Birds by Anne Hillerman

3.0

First, let me say that I have read and loved every book written by Tony and Anne Hillerman. I am so grateful that Anne took up her dad’s legacy and continued with his characters. In this latest book, the legendary Lieutenant has accepted two very different PI jobs. One is helping locate the biological parents of a “Lost Bird”, a Navajo child who was adopted, perhaps illegally, and raised by white parents. The other is locating a missing woman. The missing woman, just happens to be a former employee of a school that just blew up and the wife of the school janitor. The investigation of that explosion and subsequent crimes falls to Bernadette along with the FBI and other local jurisdictions. So there are a lot of threads here; way too many in my opinion. These plot threads look like a ball of yarn after the cats have been at it, a gnarled mess. Add to that a storyline involving the son of Lt. Leaphorn’s housemate and another one with Bernie’s mother and sister, and there’s just a little too much going on here. The dialogue is not tight, too many inconsequential things and other very important clues that seem to slip through the cracks. The main characters are true, the scenery, as always, is perfect. There’s just a little too much and the wrap up involves a twist that I didn’t see coming. I blame the editor. With a little bit of editing help, the plot could have been tightened up, the side quests minimized a bit and I’d be giving it 5 stars instead of 3. For me it was just frustrating, especially when I love these characters so much and want to read about them more.