History Creator / TonyHillerman

* DiscretionShot: All varieties. Hillerman's books are generally pretty clean.

* PoliceProcedural: Hillerman's usual genre.
* TheRez: Usually a combination of the Political Rez and the Magical Rez. The two sometimes collide.

* WelcomeToTheBigCity

Today Tony Hillerman is widely credited as the TropeCodifier of the Native American detective novel. Authors following his footsteps include Thomas Perry, Kirk Mitchell, Margaret Coel, James Doss, Sandra Prowell, Dana Stabenow, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Louis Owens, and Linda Hogan.[[http://www.dancingbadger.com/tony_hillerman.htm]].

Following his death, Hillerman's daughter Anne Hillerman announced plans to continue the Leaphorn/Chee series. ''Spider Woman's Daughter'' was published in Fall 2013 and was something of a WhamEpisode. ([[spoiler: Joe Leaphorn gets shot in the head and Louisa Bourebonette is one of the suspects]].)

Anthony Grove Hillerman (May 27, 1925 – October 26, 2008) was an award-winning bestselling author of detective novels and non-fiction. He is best known for his much-loved PoliceProcedural series about Navajo Tribal Policemen Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, set primarily on the Navajo Reservation in the Four Corners area of the Southwest. Leaphorn is older, seasoned, and a bit cynical, while Chee is young and idealistic and dreams of becoming a ''Hatałii'', or Navajo shaman. Leaphorn eventually retires but continues to play an active role in major investigations.

The complete Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee books are:

* ''The Blessing Way'' (1970)
* ''Dance Hall of the Dead'' (1973)
* ''Listening Woman'' (1978)
* ''People Of Darkness'' (1980)
* ''The Dark Wind'' (1982)
* ''The Ghostway'' (1984)
* ''Skinwalkers'' (1986)
* ''A Thief of Time'' (1988)
* ''Talking God'' (1989)
* ''Coyote Waits'' (1990)
* ''Sacred Clowns'' (1993)
* ''The Fallen Man'' (1996)
* ''The First Eagle'' (1998)
* ''Hunting Badger'' (1999)
* ''The Wailing Wind'' (2002)
* ''The Sinister Pig'' (2003)
* ''Skeleton Man'' (2004)
* ''The Shape Shifter'' (2006)

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Joe Leaphorn, and there's a talk show host in ''Hunting Badger'' named Everett Emerson Jorie.
* ByTheBookCop: Joe Leaphorn.
* CanonWelding: Leaphorn was actually created first in ''The Blessing Way''. Jim Chee came later in ''People of Darkness''. The two characters were finally brought together in ''Skinwalkers''.
* TheCavalry: Amusingly, Leaphorn (who is Navajo) plays this role for [[spoiler:Professor Bergen [=McKee=]]] (who is white) in [[spoiler:''The Blessing Way'']].
* CityMouse: Janet Pete.
* TheCityVsTheCountry: A source of tension in Jim Chee's relationship with Janet Pete, the half-Navajo daughter of a white socialite from the East Coast. She wants him to leave TheRez behind and come back with her to DC as a polished FBI agent; he wants her to return to her Navajo roots.
* CountryMouse: Chee.
* DeathByMaterialism: In ''Skeleton Man'' [[spoiler: a man dies in a flash-flood when he could have saved himself by letting go of a bag of diamonds]]. Elsewhere, the materialism of mainstream American society is often commented upon as a source of disaster and unrest.
* DeceasedFallGuyGambit: [[spoiler:The murder of Jorie]] in ''Hunting Badger''.

* TheExoticDetective: The Leaphorn/Chee series originally came across as this. Before Hillerman stories about Native American detectives on TheRez were rare, although today it's a whole subgenre.
* FBIAgent: Homicides committed on the reservation are FBI jurisdiction, so they appear quite a bit. Individual agents such as Kennedy and Osbourne often get along with the Navajo Tribal Police, although the FBI as a whole is generally portrayed as a meddling and inept bureaucracy.
* FakeNationality: Both an in-universe and a meta example. In ''Sacred Clowns'' Jim Chee, Janet Pete, and a Comanche agent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs attend the screening of a film about Comanches that actually used Navajo actors. It is commented that Hollywood apparently thinks all Native Americans look alike. Ironically, however, the TV adaptions of Hillerman's novels starred the Cherokee Creator/WesStudi (Leaphorn), the Canadian Saulteaux Creator/AdamBeach (Chee), the Mohawk Alex Rice (Janet Pete), and other non-Navajo actors and actresses.
* FauxActionGirl: Hillerman's daughter Anne Hillerman thought Bernie Manuelito had shades of this, often coming across more as the "love-struck girlfriend of Jim Chee" than a strong law enforcement officer in her own right. She says she was happy that Manuelito was given a bigger role as a policewoman in ''Skeleton Man'' - in which she finds the missing jewels and confronts the villain - but was disappointed that she ultimately had to be rescued by Chee. Her father actually agreed with her. Anne gave Manuelito an expanded role in ''Spider Woman's Daughter''. [[http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-news/ci_22176155/anne-hillerman-continue-fathers-mystery-book-series]]
* TheFilmOfTheBook: ''Skinwalkers'', ''A Thief of Time'', and ''Coyote Waits'' were adapted for television as part of PBS's ''American Mysteries!'' series.
* GirlNextDoor: Bernadette (Bernie) Manuelito, whom Jim Chee ends up marrying. She's a pretty, cheerful, down-to-earth fellow Navajo cop who is contrasted to Chee's previous love interest, the sophisticated, half-white lawyer Janet Pete.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler: James Tso intended for his accomplices to all die in a bombing made to look like a murder-suicide. He dies when one of said accomplices, desperately trying to prove to Leaphorn that James would never betray them, sends the planned signal a couple of hours early, while he and James are standing right next to one of the bombs.]]

* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: Leroy Fleck in ''Talking God'' has a doozy of one, largely thanks to his Mama.
* JurisdictionFriction: Usually between the local police and the FBI.
* LetOffByTheDetective: Jim Chee at one point discovers the identity of a hit-and-run drunk driver after he makes an anonymous on-air radio confession, in which he promises to send the victim's family $200 a month as penance. Chee learns that it was a one-time incident and the man is caring for a grandson with fetal alcohol syndrome. Chee not only lets the man go but helps him evade arrest.
* TheLostLenore: Joe Leaphorn's wife Emma. She dies from a post-surgical infection and Leaphorn never gets over it.
* MeaningfulName: Part of Navajo culture is that you get a real name known only to your closest family members, which describes you in some way. Bernie's is Girl Who Laughs.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The VillainOpeningScene of ''The Ghostway'' involves a TV personality, deeply in debt to the mob (of course), whose name sounds a lot like [[Series/TheTonightShowWithJayLeno "Jay Leno."]]

* OldCopYoungCop: Chee and Leaphorn.
* ThePlague: The OG Black Death plays a role in ''The First Eagle''[[note]]it's pretty widespread among western rodents like the Gunnison's prairie dog[[/note]], although none of the main characters catch it.

* PragmaticVillainy: In ''People of Darkness,'' the hit man Colton Wolf kills as few people as he can manage (aside from his assigned targets), because the fewer people that are killed, the shorter the resulting manhunt is.
* ProfessionalKiller: These pop up occasionally. ''Sinister Pig'' has a RetiredMonster in the service of a corrupt Washington lobbyist, while ''The Ghostway'' has a survivalist working for a gangster.
* RealMenEatMeat: Gender-flipped with Jim and Bernie. While Jim isn't a vegetarian, he still tries to eat a balanced diet. Bernie, meanwhile, actively avoids eating green vegetables and considers a salad something that you feed to something you'd eat.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: ''Hunting Badger'' was based on the real 1998 robbery of an Indian casino.

* ScoobyDooHoax: Many of the crimes investigated by Leaphorn and Chee are often credited by more traditional Navajo as supernatural in origin. Chee often ties Navajo mythology into his understanding of the investigation.
* ShownTheirWork: Hillerman's knowledge of Navajo culture is ''hugely'' extensive. He took great pains to be as accurate as possible.
* SiblingYinYang: In ''Listening Woman'', [[spoiler:Benjamin and James Tso]].

* SkinWalker: The mythology is present in many of the Leaphorn/Chee novels, including one actually entitled ''Skinwalkers''.
* SparedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler: Emma Leaphorn survives her cancer in the PBS films.]]
* StrangeCopInAStrangeLand: Chee occasionally travels to other parts of the country during his investigations. He goes to Los Angeles in ''The Ghostway'' and Washington, D.C. in ''Talking God''. In both cases being away from the reservation and in the city gives him mild culture shock.
* ThereAreNoCoincidences: Leaphorn's personal philosophy, influenced by the Navajo belief in the interconnectedness of all things.
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: ''Dance Hall of the Dead'', published in 1973, features a hippie commune, a psychedelic drug experience, and references to the Vietnam War.

* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: Touched on in ''Talking God''. Neither the [[spoiler:Chilean resistance, who convince Highhawk to set up a bomb at the Smithsonian [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness and then kill him]]]], nor the [[spoiler:Pinochet government and the hitman they hire to bump off the resistance members]] come off [[GreyAndGrayMorality looking very good]].

[[quoteright:326:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Hillerman_5541.jpg]]Anthony Grove "Tony" Hillerman (May 27, 1925 – October 26, 2008) was an award-winning bestselling author of detective novels and non-fiction. He is best known for his much-loved PoliceProcedural series about Navajo Tribal Policemen Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, set primarily on the Navajo Reservation in the Four Corners area of the Southwest. Leaphorn is older, seasoned, and a bit cynical, while Chee is young and idealistic and dreams of becoming a ''Hatałii'', or Navajo shaman. Leaphorn eventually retires but continues to play an active role in major investigations.

* StrangeCopInAStrangeLand: Chee occasionally travels to other parts of the country during his investigations. He goes to Los Angeles in ''The Ghostway'' and Washington, D.C. in ''Talking God''. In both cases being away from the reservation and in the city gives his mild culture shock.

[[quoteright:326:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Hillerman_5541.jpg]]Tony Hillerman (1925-2008) was an award-winning bestselling author of detective novels and non-fiction. He is best known for his much-loved PoliceProcedural series about Navajo Tribal Policemen Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, set primarily on the Navajo Reservation in the Four Corners area of the Southwest. Leaphorn is older, seasoned, and a bit cynical, while Chee is young and idealistic and dreams of becoming a ''Hatałii'', or Navajo shaman. Leaphorn eventually retires but continues to play an active role in major investigations.

In December 2012 it was announced that Hillerman's daughter Anne Hillerman plans to continue the Leaphorn/Chee series. ''Spider Woman's Daughter'' was published in Fall 2013.[[http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-news/ci_22176155/anne-hillerman-continue-fathers-mystery-book-series]][[http://www.omnimysterynews.com/2012/12/anne-hillerman-to-continue-her-late-fathers-joe-leaphorn-and-jim-chee-mystery-series-1212131200.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mysterybooks+%28Omnimystery+News%29#.UOBjMKxrOSp]]

* FauxActionGirl: Hillerman's daughter Anne Hillerman thought Bernie Manuelito had shades of this, often coming across more as the "love-struck girlfriend of Jim Chee" than a strong law enforcement officer in her own right. She says she was happy that Manuelito was given a bigger role as a policewoman in ''Skeleton Man'' - in which she finds the missing jewels and confronts the villain - but was disappointed that she ultimately had to be rescued by Chee. Her father actually agreed with her. Anne plans on giving Manuelito an expanded role in the upcoming ''Spider Woman's Daughter''. [[http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-news/ci_22176155/anne-hillerman-continue-fathers-mystery-book-series]]

In December 2012 it was announced that Hillerman's daughter Anne Hillerman plans to continue the Leaphorn/Chee series. ''Spider Woman's Daughter'' will be published in Fall 2013.[[http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-news/ci_22176155/anne-hillerman-continue-fathers-mystery-book-series]][[http://www.omnimysterynews.com/2012/12/anne-hillerman-to-continue-her-late-fathers-joe-leaphorn-and-jim-chee-mystery-series-1212131200.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mysterybooks+%28Omnimystery+News%29#.UOBjMKxrOSp]]

Today Tony Hillerman is widely credited as the TropeCodifier of the Native American detective novel. Authors following his footsteps include Thomas Perry, Kirk Mitchell, Margaret Coel, James Doss, Sandra Prowell, Dana Stablenow, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Louis Owens, and Linda Hogan.[[http://www.dancingbadger.com/tony_hillerman.htm]].