HILLERMAN COUNTRY: A Journey Through the Southwest...

HILLERMAN COUNTRY: A Journey Through the Southwest With Tony Hillerman, photographs in color by Barney Hillerman (HarperCollins: $39.95; 240 pp.) and THE BEST OF THE WEST: An Anthology of Classic Writing From the American West, edited by Tony Hillerman (HarperCollins: $25; 528 pp.). What makes a Tony Hillerman mystery so compelling? Deft plotting, to be sure; two intriguing heroes, both Navajo tribal policemen--the elderly, philosophical Joe Leaphorn and the younger, more emotive Jim Chee. But it is the landscape, finally--the Four Corners of the Southwest--that plays the chief (pardon the pun) role in his novels: Indian country--Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Pueblo, etc. You don’t mind being given a break from the action to realize the drama and beauty of the story’s setting: “The cottonwoods along the river formed a crooked line of dazzling gold across a vast landscape of grays and tans. And beyond, the dark blue mountains formed the horizon, the Abajos, Sleeping Ute and the San Juans, already capped with early snow. It was one of those still, golden days of high desert autumn” (from “Coyote Waits”). Hillerman, and brother Barney, have produced a pleasing coffee-table book about the places far off the main highways cutting through the reservations of the Southwest. Hillerman’s text examines the weird disappearance of the Anasazi, tribal beliefs, the mountain ranges and rivers of the Four Corners, snippets of history, as well as a personally guided tour through some valleys and canyons he particularly cherishes. The photography is bold and sharp, capturing a rugged landscape that continues to fascinate and mystify visitors and inhabitants alike. “The Best of the West” is a fine, fat collection of fiction and nonfiction about the American frontier. You’ll find writings by Wallace Stegner, Oliver La Farge, Helen Hunt Jackson, Lawrence Clark Powell and Charles Lummis, just to name a few. A perfect duo for the armchair saddle tramp in your house!