Degrees of Affection

One thing for this Holiday Book Bingo, it's had me looking beyond what I generally read. When I saw the square for Native American MC, my first thought was Moonlight Reader's review of this book. Despite the lowish rating, the series idea had stuck with me and finally I decided to take the plunge.

Overall, glad I did.

The book has the makings of quite a good story, hopefully the rest of the series sees this fulfilled. I've never been further then St. Louis and have never seen a desert with my own eyes. But the landscape came alive for me with this book. I could almost feel the sand and see the land laid out before me. I could nearly smell the porcupine meat cooking and the sweat from the Enemy Way. That may have been part of the problem. Against the rich background, the characters didn't fair very well and were often overshadowed. I wanted Lt. Leaphorn to solve the mystery and the other characters to be safe but they at times seemed more the plot made flesh then people.

The mystery was...kind of obvious. Oh, there was no way to figure out all the ends and outs but I definitely had the main elements early on.

While I know the author needed to draw things out, he nearly made Leaphorn look bad and he wasn't in the least, he clearly knew how to talk to people and get them to talk and figured out a great deal. But only when convenient.

So this is a three star read, more for the solid foundation I can see laid out then some of the book itself. I'm definitely going to read more of these, as I really want to see where it goes.