Booktalk: Anne Hillerman’s SHADOW OF THE SOLSTICE (#10 in her Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito series featuring three Navajo detectives)

Host Diana Korte speaks with award-winning journalist and novelist Anne Hillerman, author of 18 books, whose newest title is “Shadow of the Solstice.”

She was approached several years ago by Robert Redford and George R.R. Martin to create the popular tv series, “Dark Wind,” now in its third season that is based on her and her dad’s (Tony Hillerman) crime novels.

In the new book, Navajo Nation police are on high alert when a U.S. Cabinet Secretary schedules an unprecedented trip to the little Navajo town of Shiprock, New Mexico. The visit coincides with a plan to resume uranium mining along the Navajo Nation border. Tensions around the official’s arrival escalate when the body of a stranger is found nearby. Is it coincidence that a cult with a propensity for violence arrives at a private camp outside Shiprock the same week to celebrate the summer solstice?

Note from Diana Korte: “On a personal note, in 30 years of this program, Anne Hillerman is the first family member of an author I spoke with for “Booktalk” back in the day.”

Booktalk: Anne Hillerman’s SHADOW OF THE SOLSTICE (#10 in her Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito series featuring three Navajo detectives) Veronica Straight-Lingo

Top authors are interviewed on this 10-minute program that captures their words about their books and ideas and often the story behind the story. The show, hosted by Diana Korte and engineered by Gene Korte, is in its 30th year of production.