Hillerman's novels tend to be fun to discuss, and Coyote Waits is no exception. The interaction of cultures is particularly interesting in Coyote Waits; this time, instead of plundering Native American graves, the academic community, represented by Tagert and Redd, wants to plunder the remains of a white bandit. Even so, cultural attitudes about the dead continue to differ, as in Talking God and other novels, furthermore, Chee finds his attitudes tested when faced with the murder of a colleague by a Native American. His difficulties with the case internalize in him the very difficult problem of establishing a balanced view of the relationship between Navajo culture and outsiders.

1. Chee and Leaphorn appear together for their fourth book in Coyote Waits, yet they appeared separately in earlier books. Which are better, the ones in which they appear apart from each other or the ones in which...