The Tale Teller by Anne Hillerman

Joe Leaphorn is back.  His English is bad since the gunshot.  He can speak it but not correctly.  It's a good thing he knows his native language.  That one works well even if everyone can't understand.  He's now a private detective and he has agreed to try to find some missing antique relics that the local library was going to put on display.  They have almost everything but two items are missing...

Harper and Edelweiss gave me the opportunity to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published March 20th.

Jim Chee and his wife Bernie are on another case.  While Bernie was doing her morning run, she finds a dog guarding a dead body.  When she calls it in, she finds the FBI are interested in him...

Both cases are complex, it involves different tribes and the investigating officers sometime clash.  Ms. Hillerman talks about family relationships in this story and shows how their history as Indians has affected how they act.  It all sounds authentic and it's interesting.

They find the dead man was a thief.  His girlfriend's uncle get shot.  And it takes a real good detective to find the missing antiques.  The cases are connected by not obviously.

With more than one case, many different cops from different departments and a dog involved, it takes time to sort out the connections in the case and identify the killers.  Leaphorn and his girlfriend have some problems so there's even domesticity in the cop's lives.

I enjoy these characters.  I began reading them while Anne's father was writing them and she's doing a very good job of carrying the characters forward.