The Fallen Man: Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, Book 12

I love Tony Hillerman books and it is great to finally get some unabridged versions on Audible. We should have all of them here of course but that is off the point. Thus I was eagerly anticipating my acquaintance with a beloved old friends Jim and Joe when a started this volume. Sadly I was immediately put off by the voice, accents (or attempts thereof) and generally delivery of the narrator. He is totally wrong for this series. His effort at a Navaho or even Native American accent comes off as bad attempt at West Texas country. And that is being quite generous. I have listened to all of the abridged Hillerman CDs and never have I heard anything this bad. If fact, those narrators generally did a fine job with the main characters. I hate to make this about the narration but the bottom line is that the book is good enough to survive even narration this bad and still be enjoyable. After the first hour, I simply became numb to the pitiful efforts to reproduce a Native American speech pattern and concentrated on the words alone. Boy do I hope the other unabridged Hillerman books here have a different narrator.

The story.

Any others in the series.

You couldn't tell one character from another, all the voices were the same, everyone spoke at the same plodding pace. The characters never came alive and I struggled to follow the story because of that.

No

This one is a bit of a back story for several of the other Jim Chee/Joe Leaphorn stories, with the usual mix of intriguing characters and more twists and turns than a 4-Corners road. The contrast between Janet, the "urban Indian" and Jim Chee's passion for his local land, people, and culture was especially well told.

The very last arrest in the story was my favorite moment.

Mr. Baskous has strong abilities as a reader, but his accents constantly slipped, and never sounded Native American except for very brief moments here and there. His ability create identifiable genders has a ways to go as well. I think he would do well in other literature, with less need for a distinctly different accent. Before he records any more of these, it might be worthwhile for him to listen to the old CD versions done by George Guidall - really well done for both genders and the overall accent needs.

Jim Chee's growing realization that Janet intended to remake him was especially well written and paced well.

Every time I read a Jim Chee/Joe Leaphorn book I feel as if I am having a very attractive lesson in cultural behaviours and history. These are terrific books.

Tony Hillerman's stories are classic in their introductions to Navajo culture, but I greatly prefer the original narrator, George Guidell, as the "real" voices of Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee.

Great story.

Other Tony Hillerman stories on the reservation.

I like Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn equally well.

Intrigue , suspense, emotional

The book presented modern day excitement of detective work on an Indian reservation. A well paced story about old style detective work and new. The story made sense and was easy to follow.

Christain has a good ability to change his voice from male, female, Indian and a person form the east coast.

Yes - if started in the morning with nothing else to do this would holdyour interest.