THE BLESSING WAY (Tony Hillerman)

I have very mixed feelings about this novel.  Friends in my book club who have read Tony Hillerman extensively say this is not representative of his work and that the others are much better.  The Blessing Way is poorly titled, since there is little connection to the story aside from one or two mentions in the book.  Apparently the publisher (erroneously) thought this was a better title than the one suggested by the author!

Here are the bad points:  The first half of the book is very confusing, full of multiple Native American names, brief mentions of customs and traditions, and uncertainty about who the main characters actually are and how they are related to one another.  because of the incredible number of names and references it is almost impossible for the reader to keep track of the action, location, or whereabouts of the characters.

Here are the good points:  The second half of the novel is a great, action-packed thriller and would make a terrific movie.  It seems as if Hillerman cleaned out the dust and milling hoards of people somewhere in the middle of the book.  Once he focused on a few people and stopped focusing on minute details it became very enjoyable to read.  While I think that the Native American background information is valuable, it should have been presented in a different, more organized way.

The good news is that this, Hillerman's first in the Joe Leaphorn series, was apparently the jumping off point for an excellent and well-written series.  It might not hurt to skip this one, but if you do read it keep in mind that it DOES get better!