Spider Woman's Daughter

Book cover of Spider Woman's Daughter
Author	Anne Hillerman
Published	2013
Publisher	HarperCollins
ISBN	978-0-06-227048-1
OCLC	858611222
Preceded by	The Shape Shifter
Followed by

Spider Woman's Daughter is a 2013 release and the first Leaphorn/Chee mystery written by Anne Hillerman, daughter of the series originator Tony Hillerman. The title of the book is derived from Native American legends. Spider Woman was the one who taught the Navajo people how to weave.^[1] Officer Bernadette Manuelito is the daughter of a weaver, and married to Officer Jim Chee. He nicknamed her "Spider Woman's Daughter" for her ability to weave together a complex array of evidence to solve a crime. In her debut effort to continue the series, Anne Hillerman has given the reader an exceptionally detailed plot and long list of characters. One reviewer at Goodreads.com counted 46 named characters.^[2]

The Navajo Nation on which the story takes place, abuts a geographical area known as the Four Corners. The nation spans the connecting borders of the US states of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. According to the NN itself, it encompasses 500 Indian tribes on 318 reservations.^[3] The book's fictional Double X Ranch in southern Colorado, while not part of the Navajo Nation, connects to it at the Four Corners.

Plot[]

Chapters 1–3[]

Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn is retired from the Navajo Tribal Police, and living with anthropologist Louisa Bourebonette. Now a freelance investigator, he retains use of the department's computer facilities. Leaphorn carries wide respect for his pioneering crime investigation methods, and is a regular participant at their informal weekly breakfasts at the Navajo Inn in Window Rock, Arizona. As the story opens, Officer Bernadette Manuelito, Captain Howard Largo, and Officer Harold Bigman are being entertained by Leaphorn's story of an unnamed woman who set up an appointment with him, and then didn't show up. As Manuelito steps to a window to take a phone call, Leaphorn exits the Navajo Inn. She witnesses someone shoot Leaphorn in the head and escape in a 2-door blue sedan with an Arizona license plate. As an ambulance rushes Leaphorn to the hospital, the Arizona State Police crime team and FBI investigator Jerry Cordova interrogate Manuelito. Her husband Officer Jim Chee is put in charge of the investigation. Leaphorn had never updated his emergency contact information, so Manuelito is ordered to drive Leaphorn's truck home and to ask Louisa about his next of kin.

Gloria Bernally is the owner of the get-away vehicle. Her son Jackson, who uses it to drive to the University of New Mexico Gallup campus with his friend "Lizard" Leonard Nez, left it at Basha's grocery for her. Over her protests, the police search the car. Chee sends Officer Harold Bigman to search Leaphorn's hard drive and discs, which Bigman takes back to the police station.

Chapters 4–5[]

At Leaphorn's house, Manuelito finds only the cat at home. Neither Leaphorn's cell phone nor Louisa's cell number can be found. A pottery book lies on his desk, as well as his phone charger, but no phone. Chee arrives and searches in vain for recent case files, but he finds old hard copy pre-computer files that he takes home to compile a suspect list. As they depart, Manuelito leaves her business card with a note, "Louisa, call ASAP".

The next day Manuelito is due for her weekly visit with her mother at Toadlena at Two Grey Hills, to relieve her sister Darleen as caregiver. On her way, she stops by Leaphorn's house to see if Louisa has returned, but only finds a phone message from her indicating they had quarreled. She takes Leaphorn's cat so Chee the cat lover can care for it. She takes mail Leaphorn intended to post, including a bill for his services addressed to Dr. John Collingsworth in Santa Fe. On her drive to her mother's house, shes pulls over for a nap, awaking to find the cat is gone. At her mother's house, Darleen arrives drunk with Charley Zah, a.k.a. "Stoop Boy", and both quickly leave. During the visit, Mama Manuelito talks about a special old rug she wove. When it comes time to leave and Darleen has not returned, Manuelito asks neighbor Stella Darkwater to come stay with her.

When she returns home, Manuelito tells Chee she lost the cat. The Gallup Police could not find Jackson Bernally or "Lizard" Leonard Nez, who has no police record. The FBI have made Louisa a suspect because of her unexplained absence. Louisa calls Chee from Albuquerque, where she's awaiting a flight to Houston to go to a conference. She remembers that Leaphorn recently told her of "a ghost from the past", but she didn't know anymore than that. Louisa tells them he had no immediate family members she was aware of, but he kept addresses of relatives in his pocket notebook. She dodges when Chee asks her what kind of conference she's attending, and combined with her message on Leaphorn's answering machine, he believes the FBI will suspect her of a murder-for-hire. Chee and Manuelito go through the old files to compile a suspect list.

Chapters 6–7[]

The following day, Chee goes to the Navajo Tribal Police station in Shiprock and compares the list of suspect names against the lab fingerprint report. The FBI wants to talk to Louisa. Chee receives a panicked phone call from Darleen who can't find her mother, only to receive another one that Mama Manuelito had spent the night in the Darkwater home.

Before visiting Leaphorn in the Critical Care Unit (CCU) at CHRISTUS St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe, Manuelito posts his mail, except the one to Dr. John Collingsworth. Medical tests were run by neurologist Grant Moxsley, and the results sent to the FBI. In response to Manuelito's query about Collingsworth, Moxsley tells her is a director of the American Indian Resource Center (AIRC). Leaphorn lies in an induced coma, part of his skull removed to reduce pressure. If he survives, the long-term effects could alter his lifestyle and personality. When she is allowed visitation, Manuelito talks to him in the Navajo language. She's told by the hospital that Leaphorn's notebook is being held with his personal effects, and she examines its contents over lunch. Much of the coding confuses her, but on a hunch she asks reverse directory service on one set of numbers, which are found to belong to someone named Austin Lee in Farmington.

When Manuelito delivers Leaphorn's letter to Collingsworth's at AIRC, he is upset that it's only part of the information Leaphorn was supposed to provide. As Collingsworth explains, Leaphorn was evaluating the assessed valuation of a proposed acquisition from the Grove McManus Foundation, headquartered in Japan. The evaluation summary is missing. As she leaves, Collingsworth's secretary Marjorie Rockwell gives a tour of facility. Manuelito phones Officer Bigman and asks him to re-check Leaphorn's truck for a second envelope to AIRC.

Chapters 8–9[]

Officer Bigman brings the missing cat to Chee after it found its way back to Leaphorn's house, but Bigman had found no lost envelope at the house. Internet searches brought up nothing negative about Jackson or Gloria Bernally. When Jackson is taken in to be fingerprinted, Chee believes he is lying when he says he does not know how to contact Nez. Eventually, he admits to renting out the car for extra money for school books, and that his mother does not know about it. Chee makes him hand over all the contact numbers on his phone. Jackson says Nez has an uncle with a ranch. After Louisa leaves Chee a phone message that she had to talk, his return goes went to her voice mail.

The police fingerprint analysis show that some of the prints from the car belong to Garrison Tsosie, whose brother Notah Tsosie went to prison for car theft because of Leaphorn. Garrison lives in Crownpoint. Manuelito dials Austin Lee's number, but it is not answered. Cordova wants an alternate number for Louisa, but no one has one. Manuelito is asked to submit to a hypnosis debriefing about the shooting. While examining Leaphorn's notebook, both Chee and Manuelito notice geometric sketches.

Chapters 10–11[]

Chee takes care of feeding the cat and cleaning the cat box, and before heading out asks Manuelito if she can find a connection to any Tsosie in Leaphorn's files. She plans to look at her old college books at her mother's house for a clue to Leaphorn's sketches. At the same time, she intends to have a discussion on Darleen's caregiver responsibilities. Dr. Maxie Davis calls on behalf of Collingsworth, asking about Leaphorn's missing report. When Manuelito brings up Leaphorn's sketches, Davis dismisses them as having nothing to do with the McManus pots.

Mrs. Tsosie mentions to Chee that they are related. She believes her sons had no motives for harming Leaphorn. The family feels Notah deserved imprisonment, and he used it to get his GED certificate. She gives Garrison's address and phone number to Chee, assuring him her son has his own jewelry making business. At Garrison's home, Chee is invited in and told that on the day of the shooting, Garrison was selling jewelry at Earl's Restaurant on Route 66, later confirmed by Earl's manager. As he leaves Earl's, Chee buys earrings for his wife.

Back at Toadlena, Manuelito and Darleen clash over their mother's care. Darleen is more interested in being an artist and has followed the party lifestyle of her friends. Manuelito reads her old textbook Native Arts of the Southwest: Roots and Routes, a copy of which was also found on Leaphorn's desk. Seeing geometric designs that resemble Leaphorn's, she asks her mother, who says they look like ancient drawings at Chaco Canyon. The books says they are Pueblo Bonito jars. Manuelito finds a picture of a Klah rug she believes was at the AIRC museum. Mama wants to see it. Manuelito returns home to an empty house, and only the cat to keep her company. When Chee arrives, he presents her with a cake, the earrings, and a thumb drive with Leaphorn's missing report on it.

Chapters 12–13[]

Leaphorn's report verifies that most of the original valuations were accurate, but there were exceptions in 2343–2355 that had troubled him. The original appraisal firm was listed as EFB. Photos of the exceptions are included and are shown to be tall cylinders; nevertheless, Leaphorn believed the collection could be shown on a contingency basis to the public without problems. Dr. Davis offers to update the valuations, but Manuelito intends to hand the report as is over to Collingsworth.

On their way to Santa Fe for Manuelito to be debriefed by a hypnotist, she speculates about the nature of the argument between Louisa and Leaphorn, and wonders how she could have just dropped out of sight. Chee brings up the murder-for-hire theory floated by the FBI. At the New Mexico State Police Building in Santa Fe, Manuelito's hypnosis session brings up a memory of the shooter's black gloves and sand-cast silver bracelet with linked hearts. Afterwards, they pay a hospital visit to Leaphorn who has improved but is still unable to speak. In response to Chee's prompt, Leaphorn raises a finger to indicate he wants a singer to pray over him. Chee will do the sing.

At the AIRC, Chee and Manuelito are given clearance to view the Klah rug that she believes was in her book. Since Manuelito's last visit, the original copy of Leaphorn's lost report has been found, minus the pages about the exceptions. EFB is owned by Eleanor Friedman-Bernal. Unable to locate EFB Appraisals on the AIRC computers, Chee gets the information from Rocko Delbert, a former Navajo police officer. After the divorce from Bernal, she reverted to the name Ellie Friedman. When they arrive at the address provided by Delbert, EFB is closed. The property owner Janelle mentions that Friedman's car is still parked there, but Friedman seems to have vanished. Let inside EFB by Janelle, the interior is ransacked, but the exceptions that were missing from Leaphorn's report are there along with a phone number. Chee remembers that he and Leaphorn once rescued Ellie Friedman at Chaco Canyon when a man named Randall Eliott tried to kill her. After finding her residence unlocked, she is considered a missing person.

Chapters 14–15[]

Austin Lee's ex-wife returns a message from Cordova at the FBI to let them know he is a clan brother to Leaphorn. After Chee notifies Cordova and Largo about Friedman's disappearance, he and Manuelito head for the Santo Domingo Pueblo. Jackson Bernally phones Chee to tell him that he uses his mother's car on the weekends at his southern Colorado job on the Double X Ranch. The employees leave their keys in the cars in case they have to be moved, thereby providing the opportunity for anyone to make a copy of a key. He gives Chee the ranch phone number, and it's the same number Chee had seen next to Friedman's phone. Chee passes the follow-up information of the ranch to Manuelito.

After camping overnight at Chaco Canyon, they meet fellow camper Karen Dundee from Denver. When Karen finds out they're law enforcement, she relates recently witnessing an argument between two people, a woman wearing a long-sleeved shirt, and the other person with a "dorky-looking" khaki hat. Dorky Hat seemed to be physically forcing the woman along. Karen saw Dorky Hat run away, but the woman had disappeared. Shortly thereafter, Karen heard a loud bang. Chee and Manuelito report the incident to ranger Andrew Stephen who is personally acquainted with Friedman, but hasn't seen her around in a long time. After looking for pottery books at the park station, they hike to Una Vida. Chee remembers seeing Maxie Davis in the canyon years ago, when he and Leaphorn rescued Friedman from Randall Eliott .

The Double X Ranch does not fall under Navajo jurisdiction, but owner Slim Jacobs agrees to be interviewed by Manuelito. When she arrives, she noticed the parked cars with windows down and keys in the ignition, verifying that part of Bernally's story.

Friedman had a recent appointment with Jacobs, but she never showed up. She and Jacobs had dated when she worked at Chaco Canyon, having met when Jacobs hired her for a small appraisal job. He says Chaco Canyon pottery was her specialty, and someone hired her to do an appraisal when the original shipment of Chaco Canyon Anasazi antiquities were sold to a buyer in Japan. She was angry the antiquities were going out of the country. Jacobs provides Manuelito with a photo of Friedman and Maxie Davis, but he doesn't recall ever hearing Leaphorn's name. Friedman and Davis had set up a dig on the ranch, with Friedman doing the digging and Davis taking the photos.

Nez is a rodeo fan. Jacobs says to check who is offering a prize in bronc riding, and Nez will be there. Jacobs thinks Jackson acts as Nez's manager to pick up girls. At the ranch, Jackson is a bookkeeping assistant. Inasmuch as he has an interest in archeology, h also works for Maxie Davis. According to Jacobs, Davis recently showed up at the ranch trying to retrieve any old photos of her with Friedman. After Manuelito completed the interview, she told Chee to run a background check on the whole bunch.

Chapters 16–17[]

Back in Shiprock, Chee checks in with the station prior to visiting Mrs. Bernally, and Largo remonstrates Chee for the side trip to Chaco Canyon. Ranger Stephen found a woman's body on the trail, and Cordova is conducting an investigation at the canyon. Largo sends Chee back to the canyon to assist Cordova. Tim Morris, a San Juan County deputy is out there. As he walks out to Cordova, he notices unusual shoe tracks and unfiltered cigarette butts. The victim is wearing a sand-cast silver bracelet, with linked hearts.

Manuelito visits her mom, tells her about Chaco Canyon and her interview with Slim Jacobs. Darleen shows up drunk, but only stays long enough to get into "Stoop Boy"'s car. Mama shows Manuelito some magazines and catalogs brought over by Stella Darkwater, because one of mama's rugs that had been auctioned off is in there. The cylinders in the book are double the price of the pots. Manuelito looks through her old books and finds that the cylinder pots were the only ones made in the pueblo, making them more priceless. Largo phones and says she needs to be back at work on Monday.

Chapters 18–19[]

Rev. Rodriguez from the Santa Fe hospital calls with an update that Leaphorn has pneumonia. He clears Chee for the sing, but specifies no smoke or loudness out of respect to other patients. Mr. Darkwater agrees to stay with Mrs. Manuelito until Mrs. Darkwater comes home. As they drive to Santa Fe, Manuelito tells Chee about the rugs in the catalog. At the hospital room, they notice Leaphorn has a grayish cast to his skin, and Chee invites Rodriguez to add his own prayers to the sing. When they're finished, Leaphorn awakens and draws two peaks and a valley on a piece of paper. Chee and Manuelito sit with him until sunrise. The next morning, Louisa has finally arrived to relieve them. Chee leaves for the AIRC to take photos of the rugs for Manuelito. Gardener Yazzie sends him to Dr. Davis inside the museum. Chee takes photos of flowers outside, and sends Manuelito a picture with "Guess where I am" message. But he can't get a signal in the exhibit room, so he can't send or receive messages. Davis is waiting for him with a gun.

Davis puts the gun down when she realizes it's Chee, and claims to be nervous about intruders and is there making room for the new acquisition. He asks about the sand-cast silver bracelet with linked hearts on her wrist, and she says it was made by Notah Tsosie, who also made bracelets for her boyfriend Randall and for Friedman. She then begins to rant about Friedman, accusing her of lying about Randall, causing Leaphorn to leave him in the canyon to die. Davis had made fake cylinders for Japan, stashing the real ones at a storage shed in Cuba. When Leaphorn figured out why she had under-valued the cylinders, Davis claims Friedman she shot him to save her business reputation.

Louisa has explained her absence as being in Houston being examined for an auto-immune disorder. Cordova calls Manuelito relaying that the dead woman in the canyon was Friedman, and that she was shot with the same calibre bullet as Leaphorn. Chee's requested background check on Davis reveals she was in the National Guard and married to a police officer. Both filed claims of domestic violence against one another, and Davis filed for divorce. He disappeared, and his body was found years later with a bullet in his skull.

Chapters 20–21[]

Manuelito begins to worry when Chee does not answer his phone, and Louisa loans her car to help find him. At AIRC, Mark Yazzie says Chee was headed to the museum where Davis was working. The museum is locked, and Davis' car is gone. She runs into Rockwell and asks her to call the campus police who let her into the museum, mentioning that Davis left a half hour earlier. They find Chee's cell phone on the bloody carpet and report to the police that he's been kidnapped.

Manuelito arrives at the storage sheds in Cuba, and arms herself with the gun in Louisa's glove box. Identifying herself as Navajo Police at the storage office, she's told a woman with Friedman's ID has gone to the locker. Manuelito tells the office to summon assistance from local police. Inside the locker, Chee is tied to a mattress on his back, while Davis is shouting that he's going to hell. As she's sneaking in, Davis sneaks up behind and tasers Manuelito, and ties her up. It's then Manuelito see the black gloves and bracelet, and knows Davis is the one who shot Leaphorn. Davis rants about renting Jackson's car on the ranch and making a copy of the key. She pours gasoline and sets the ignition to a timer, driving off. Manuelito manages to wriggle free and defuse it.

Manuelito frees Chee, and finds a phone to call 911. After rescue by the Cuba police, Cordova arrives to tell her he interviewed Nez, who was so obsessed with rodeo that he wasn't aware the rest was happening, and doesn't know the parties involved. Davis is apprehended by the FBI. When they go back to the hospital, Austin Lee is visiting Leaphorn. Manuelito tells her about taking their cat, and Louisa says it wasn't their cat, just a stray.

The Leaphorn Award of Valor is established by the FBI, and Manuelito is the first recipient.

Characters[]

Law enforcement

• Bernadette Manuelito: Formerly a federal Customs Patrol Officer and now an officer in the Navajo Tribal Police. She is the wife of Jim Chee. They live in Shiprock, New Mexico. She was introduced in The Fallen Man.
• Jim Chee: Sergeant in the Navajo Tribal Police, nicknamed "Cheeseburger" by Bernadette's family
• Joe Leaphorn: Retired lieutenant from the Navajo Tribal Police, widowed. He lives in Window Rock, Arizona.
• Captain Howard Largo: Superior officer at Navajo Tribal Police
• Officer Harold Bigman
• Sandra is the officer manager at the police station
• Jerry Cordova: FBI investigator, drives a black Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor

Window Rock, Arizona

• Louisa Bourebonette: Anthropologist who lives with Leaphorn since the death of his wife Emma. She was introduced in Coyote Waits. Legally her name is Louisa Ann Tyler, or L. A. Tyler, but she used her maiden name for work.
• Nellie Roanhorse, waitress at the Navajo Inn.
• Gloria Bernally, mother of Jackson and owner of the car
• Jackson Bernally drives the car involved, attends UNM in Gallup
• "Lizard" Leonard Nez, Jackson's friend and co-driver
• Professor Coburn, Jackson's prof

Santa Fe, New Mexico

• Neurologist Grant Moxsley, in charge of Leaphorn at the hospital
• Dr. John Collingsworth, PhD, director of the American Indian Resource Center. (AIRC)
• Reverend Rodriguez, hospital chaplain
• Marjorie Rockwell is Dr. C's secretary.
• Dr. Maxie Davis, associate director at AIRC.
• EFB Appraisals, Eleanor Friedman-Bernal
• Janelle, EFB's landlord and owner of "Tailoring by Janelle"
• Rocko Delbert, a former Navajo police officer
• Mark Yazzie the gardener at AIRC

Toadlena at Two Grey Hills

• Bernadette's mother, a weaver before her hands were crippled with arthritis
• Darleen Manuelito, Bernadette's sister; Darleen is an artist and a high school drop-out with a chip on her shoulder
• Stoop Boy, Darleen's boyfriend. Real name Charley Zah
• Stella Darkwater, neighbor of Bernadette's mother.
• Mr. Darkwater, who stays with Bernie's mother when Mrs. Darkwater is not home.

Chaco Canyon

• Karen Dundee, camper from Denver
• Dorky Hat, someone Karen saw arguing with a woman (Long Sleeves) in the canyon
• Andrew Stephen, park ranger, a 15-year veteran of the work
• Joe Wakara, heard of park security, and a friend of Chee's, is not there today
• Randall Eliott nearly killed EFB before, Maxie Davis' boyfriend, he was killed when they rescued EFB
• Tim Morris, a San Juan County deputy
• Richard Wetherill has a grave in the canyon

Others

• Austin Lee, Farmington, New Mexico, Leaphorn's clan brother
• Garrison Tsosie, jewelry maker with a police record
• Rose, Garrison's live-in girlfriend
• Notah Tsosie, Garrison's brother in prison, also a jewelry maker
• Slim Jacobs, owner/manager of the Double X Ranch
• Hosteen Nakai, Chee's uncle who taught him the chanting

Reception[]

The book won the 2014 Spur Award for Best First Novel from the Western Writers of America, and landed on the New York Times Best Seller list.^[4][5][6]

"The torch passes." – Joe Hartlob, Bookreporter.com ^[7]

"With big shoes to fill, Hillerman does her best to copy the style of her father Tony’s beloved series, maintaining the integrity of Navajo culture throughout. Fans will spot the guilty party a mile off." – Kirkus Reviews^[8]

James Blasingame for the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy commended Anne Hillerman for keeping the subject matter at a PG level. He notes that Manuelito is her own person with "grit and determination".^[9]

"Spider Woman’s Daughter continues the Hillerman tradition, providing likable heroes against despicable villains coming together in unusual and intriguing situations in a glorious, little-understood world." – Carolyn Haley, NY Journal of Books^[10]

References[]