As a fan of Tony Hillerman's Navajo mysteries, I hope to read all of them. The Blessing Way was the first in the series, though it only served to introduce the Joe Leaphorn and was more about a college professor, Bergen McKee. Thus, while Leaphorn plays an important role, McKee is the protagonist.
I got the impression that when he wrote this, Hillerman was thinking maybe McKee would be the hero of other mysteries, but for some reason he shifted the focus to Leaphorn (and then adding in Jim Chee) in the rest of the books. Maybe he commented on this in some interview that I have not read.
It's still a good book. Even early in his career Hillerman was skilled at handling characters and dialogue, and the plot elements made sense. There was even a surprise at the end.
And of course, he mixed in Navajo culture and spirituality. In this book, he did not deal with them as smoothly as he did in later books in the series, but he still did a nice job with them.
Overall, a good read that held my attention.
I have read the final six books in the series recently. Years ago, I read some of the in-between books, but I'm not sure which ones and at that time I did not keep records. I'll have to check them out to find the ones I have not yet read. I'll happily do so.
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