Tag Archives: Tony Hillerman

December 19, 2023

Awful Adaptations

I’ve written many times here about my issues with TV and movie adaptations of existing stories. Short synopsis: I usually find them lacking. Especially the more recent attempts. Extra especially the live-action adaptations of animated stories. So many are just plain awful.

I don’t mean they fill me with awe, at least not the good kind. Sometimes I am a bit in awe that the people involved all thought it was a good thing. Emperor’s New Clothes, perhaps? No one wanted (or dared) to say anything?

Recently, I got to thinking about the worst adaptations I’ve seen…

14 Comments | tags: adaptations, Agatha Christie, Cowboy Bebop, Preacher (TV series), Sandman, storytelling, The Andromeda Strain, Tony Hillerman | posted in Books, Movies, TV

September 4, 2023

Mystery Monday 9/4/23

By Wyrd Smythe

A late edition Mystery Monday post because I’ve been distracted by various and sundry. I’ve meant this for more than one previous Monday. Not gonna miss another.

Having pretty thoroughly explored the British Queens of Crime as well as (the American) Ellery Queen, I’ve turned to new pastures: the Butch Karp / Marlene Ciampi stories by Robert K. Tanenbaum and the Matthew Scudder stories by Lawrence Block. And French author Maurice Lablanc!

Plus, I’m disgruntled by Dark Winds, an AMC TV series that (too loosely, IMO) adapts two novels from the Navajo Tribal Police series by Tony Hillerman.

11 Comments | tags: adaptations, Anne Hillerman, Arsène Lupin, Jim Chee, Joe Leaphorn, Lawrence Block, Lupin (TV series), Lupin the Third, Matthew Scudder, Tony Hillerman | posted in Books, Mystery Monday

February 6, 2023

P.D. James

By Wyrd Smythe

Yesterday I at long last dipped my toe into yet another author I’ve been meaning to explore for (quite literally) many decades: P.D. James (1920-2014). My dad — from whom I inherited my love of mysteries — thought she was pretty good, so she’s been on my list for a long time.

While not nearly as prolific as the great Dame Agatha Christie, James very much follows in, and even extends, the tradition of British murder mysteries.

So far, I’ve only read a bunch of her short stories and gotten started on one of her novels — which I’ll be returning to and curling up with as soon as I finish this (hopefully short) post.

18 Comments | tags: Agatha Christie, P.D. James, Tony Hillerman | posted in Books, Mystery Monday

April 6, 2020

Joe, Jim and Bernie

By Wyrd Smythe

Yá’át’ééh! Fans of the Hillerman books will immediately recognize the three names in the title as Joe Leaphorn, Jim Chee, and Bernadette Manuelito (a relatively new addition who doesn’t yet have her own Wiki page). All three are (fictional) police officers working for the (real) Navajo Tribal Police in the American southwest.

I have to call them just “the Hillerman books” now, because after father Tony Hillerman died, daughter Anne Hillerman took up the series and has so far contributed five very worthy stories of her own. (Her vision of the series puts Bernie Manuelito front and center and thus adds fresh air to the 18 books her father wrote.)

I’m a fan of detective novels, especially murder mystery detective novels, and these are without question my second favorite mystery books of all time.

26 Comments | tags: Anne Hillerman, Bernadette Manuelito, Jim Chee, Joe Leaphorn, Navajo Nation, Tony Hillerman | posted in Books, Mystery Monday