Tony Hillerman’s Murderous Terrain: Landscape, Location, and Setting in Crime & Mystery Writing

A Look through the Tony Hillerman PortalPresentation by Diana FilarMA from UNM; PhD Student at Brandeis University

Crime Writing as GenreIt is “more difficult (comparatively) to combine a credible puzzle with a setting which comes alive, an underlying theme and distinguished writing” – PD James

Hillerman and Mystery

Hillerman’s mystery writing process – directly connected to the landscape

The Mystery Man

With Sue Grafton

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It used to be that I got two kinds of readers…mystery fans and desert rats. Now I've got a few desert rats and mystery readers and a lot of people who say, ‘I don't usually read mysteries.’

Tony Hillerman in Boston Globe Magazine

Importance of Landscape/Setting to Mystery Writing

For Hillerman, terrain becomes central to the plot; the mystery and events could not take place anywhere else

Can we imagine Agatha Christie’s bestselling And Then There Were None taking place anywhere but an island?

Lundy Island off the Devon Coast of Engliand

Can we imagine any of Stephen King’s novels outside of Castle Rock, Maine?

Similarly, we can’t imagine Tony Hillerman’s Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee mysteries taking place anywhere but the American Southwest

Several books have been written about Hillerman’s connection to the Southwest: The Spell of New Mexico (ed. by Hillerman) Talking Mysteries (Hillerman and Bulow) Tony Hillerman’s Navajoland (Linford) Tony Hillerman’s Landscape: on the Road with

an American Legend (Anne Hillerman) Literature & Landscape : Writers of the

Southwest (Haines) Hillerman Country (Tony and Barney Hillerman –

photos)

“If You Go: Read: Author Tony Hillerman suggests that you do some homework before traveling to Navajo Country… ‘You miss a lot if you don’t go having some knowledge of the cultures and the mythologies’” (Star Tribune, 1992)

Travel to Hillerman Country

From The San Diego Union Tribune, 1999

From Rocky Mountain News, 1994

Laurence Linford and Tony Hillerman

“Hillerman has firmly attached his heroes (and often his villains) to the land that is Navajo Country, and his readers get glimpses of the barren desert, the high mountains and the villages and towns that intersperse with one another throughout the Four Corners region. Conversations with avid Hillerman readers have made it clear to me that this is one of the special traits that attract so many fans to his books” –Linford in his Proposal for Tony Hillerman’s Navajoland, eventually published in 2001.

Encyclopedia on eHillerman

Listening Woman

Manuscript Viewer on eHillerman

Page 1 of Listening Woman

Includes the landscape/setting terms: San Francisco Peaks

Moenkopi plateauHopi villages (Shongopovi & Second

Mesa)Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park

Nokaito BenchHogan

Dust devil

Mapping Function on eHillerman

In Hillerman’s novels, landscape travels as the narrative progresses. For Listening Woman, specifically:

In the first chapter Listening Woman leans into a

crevasse to hear what type of healing she should perform on Hosteen Tso

The landscape is important to where the murder takes place, how her role is established in the mystery

Couldn’t happen anywhere else

As the mystery builds… Later, Leaphorn is stuck in a

crevasse escaping from one of the suspects/possible culprits

The slot canyons become central to the development of clues and the ultimate solving of the mystery:

“Leaphorn found himself in the crevasse, scrambling frantically upward over the boulder and brush…” (217). The action that ensues couldn’t have happened anywhere else. We know this is the southwest.

Landscape VS. Human Environment

In Listening Woman, the landscape becomes important to solving the mystery

“Runoff water had drained down it, debris had tumbled into it, and an assortment of cactus, creosote bush, rabitt brush and weeds had taken root amid the boulders. It had two advantages – it offered a hiding place and was too steep for the dog to climb. Its disadvantage overrode both of these. It was a trap” (219).

But human made environments become important as well “Window Rock called and asked

the captain why you weren’t over there helping out with the Boy Scouts. When will you be in?”

“We’re coming down on Navajo Route 1 west of Tsegi..Be in Tuba City in about an hour” (15-16)

The eHillerman portal Encyclopedia contains more than just landscape terms, because weapons and criminal accessories just as significant in mystery as setting

Intersections: Setting, Landscape, Culture

Works Citedhttps://www.randomhouse.com/features/pdjames/mysterywriting.htmlhttp://fictionwriting.about.com/od/genrefiction/tp/mysteryrules.htmhttp://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/vandine.htmhttp://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/the-how-of-where-the-importance-of-setting-in-your-fictionhttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/17/philip-hensher-importance-place-fictionhttp://writersrelief.com/blog/2012/06/literary-locations-settings/Listening Woman by Tony HillermanThe Dark Wind by Tony HillermanThe Spell of New Mexico ed. by Hillerman)Talking Mysteries with Tony Hillerman and Ernie BulowTony Hillerman’s Navajoland by Laurance LinfordTony Hillerman’s Landscape: on the Road with an American Legend by Anne Hillerman and Don StrelHillerman Country by Tony and Barney HillermanEhillerman.unm.eduCSWR/DISC archives