“Song of the Lion”  is the third book of the Jim Chee, Joe Leaphorn, Bernie Manuelito series that Anne Hillerman took over from her late father and has made her own. She uses the characters  Chee and Leaphorn that her father developed and added Chee’s wife Manuelito to the mix.

Chee and Manuelito are Navajo Nation Police and Leaphorn is a retired from the same force. This case starts out with car bomb in the parking lot of a high school in Shiprock, New Mexico and is associated with a mediation of all interested parties concerning a resort development right outside Grand Canyon National Park. The three have a difficult time trying to sort out all the sketchy characters involved in a case that has roots going back decades.

If you love the desert southwest and are interested in the Navajo, Hopi, and other tribes, and conflict between tribal rights and traditions and the forces for economic development then you will like this book. Ms. Hillerman has done a great job adopting her father’s series and adding new dimensions to it.

I give it a thumbs up rating. It is a great read.I got my copy at the Tulsa City County Library. I give them a thumbs up also.