the Southwest, and his renown, lead him into a number of cases, after his active police career is over. in Hunting Badger, Leaphorn and Chee work together, including using the map to figure out where the criminals are hiding, matching up their trail with the story of an old coal mine shaft that opened on the rim of Gothic Creek Canyon. Leaphorn was drawn into that case as a pawn of the main criminal, which he realizes at the end, but he also follows through with Chee until the very end. Reception Joe Leaphorn is seen as a detective "who walks and talks softly" and comes alive as "Hillerman's anything but wooden Indians and the way in which he informs their way of life with affection and dignity." The "quiet, wise presence of Leaphorn himself, unselfconsciously drawing on the best of two clashing cultures." is a strong appeal of the series of novels by Hillerman. When he and Jim Chee work together the first time, the contrast focuses on him as "middle-aged, cynical Lieut. Joe Leaphorn and young, mystical Officer Jim Chee". The strength of the character of this fictional police detective is intimately tied to the strength of the novels, as one reviewer noted: "what makes Skinwalkers so outstanding, for me, is that it takes the reader inside the world of the Navajo reservation". In later novels, Leaphorn is described as "ruminatively intelligent". When Chee formally reports to Leaphorn, the two characters are contrasted: "The byplay between prickly Leaphorn and spiritual Chee; Chee's sobering reflections on Navajo and white people's justice; problem-strewn new romantic intrigues for both heroes--all of these make this not only a masterful novel in its own right, but an object lesson in how to develop an outstanding series." After Leaphorn retires, he continues to get involved in cases with Lt. Chee: "It'll take the combined ingenuity of irascible Leaphorn and contemplative Chee to spot the clue Leaphorn missed a decade ago--and their combined wisdom to figure out what to do with their knowledge." Leaphorn continues to straddle the Navajo ways and the modern world to solve crimes: "Joe Leaphorn, now retired as a tribal policeman, says, Witches offer an easy explanation for unexplained illnesses. So it's just as logical to suspect, as do some biologists working for the Indian Health Service, that a new and extraordinarily virulent strain of bubonic plague is abroad." Even in