Recently I’ve been rereading Tony Hillerman’s mysteries. These were books I really enjoyed when I was younger but I haven’t picked up since, and I was curious if the writing would hold up. After all, some books I thought were incredible when I was younger are actually pretty bad in the cold light of today.
I’m pleased to say that Hillerman’s stories aren’t of that category. In fact, given a better understanding of the amount of work that goes into spinning a good yarn, I can confidently state that they’re excellent examples of mystery writing done right.
Hillerman is a master of noting small details that combine seamlessly to create the final picture. The conclusion to the mystery is the logical solution to the puzzle posed by events, the sum of the human behaviors and tendencies of the author’s characters. Hillerman is one of the few “greats” of storytelling who completely earns that title.
The Fly On The Wall, like several of Hillerman’s first titles, is one I’d never read before. It’s astoundingly good, even for being mostly set at the US capitol rather than on the Navajo reservation. (Hillerman’s familiarity with the reservation, its people, its geography, and its weather, is one of the things that originally drew me to his writing.)
While the capital is a more sterile environment and calculating, detached reporter John Cotton is a somewhat less relatable protagonist than those in other Hillerman novels, the story more than makes up for this in political intrigue and suspense. As Cotton goes from idly investigating what another reporter was working on just before his accidental death to gathering evidence of the possible misappropriation of public funds, people around him begin to meet with mysterious, fatal accidents. Cotton is forced to consider the possibility that someone might really not want this story of minor corruption broken. But why? And how big is this scandal, anyway? Because the reporter who passed on the tip just before tumbling off a fourth-floor balcony seemed to think he was about to wrap up the story of a lifetime…
The Fly on the Wall is an expertly woven mystery that borders on thriller territory, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
If you’d like to see me review more of Hillerman’s novels, or more mysteries in general, let me know in the comments. And as always, thank you for reading!
