“I tend to have two sorts of fans,” Tony Hillerman observed in a 1986 interview with Sue Bernell and Michaela Karni: “One kind are the mystery readers, who care more about plot. The other kind I call 'desert rats.'” Since then, however, Hillerman's fans have come to include a much broader spectrum of readers. He has been honored by organizations ranging from the Navajo Tribal Council to the Mystery Writers of America. He has won such awards as France's Grand Prix de Littérature Policière and the Golden Spur Award of the Western Writers of America. His novels are regular best-sellers. Part of his success—including his crisp journalistic style and his effective choice of protagonists—can be traced back to the particulars of his biography. Another part comes from his ability to cross genre boundaries, producing books that are equal parts police procedural, mystery...