Janice's Reviews > Spider Woman's Daughter: A Leaphorn & Chee Novel

I was going to give this book 2 stars but decided I was allowing the narration of the audiobook to unduly influence my impression of the book.

I think Anne Hillerman did a good job of continuing her father's series. I liked that she chose to write it from the point of view of a female character. Write what you know best. The information about Navajo pottery and weaving, as well as the Navajo traditions surrounding death was quite informative and interesting.

I was a little lost in the story line. I'm not sure if it was the fact that I prefer something meatier, or if I was so focused on the narrator's performance, that I missed it. Perhaps it was a bit of both. There was a sub-plot with Bernie's mother and sister that took quite a bit of bandwidth, yet was never resolved. I wondered if this story line is to continue in the series. It seemed that there was more plot devoted to Bernie's personal life than to the mystery of who shot Leaphorn.

The biggest downfall in the audiobook was the narration. It was unfortunate that the narrator attempted to use Navajo accents. She made the characters sound uneducated with the halting, stilted speech you hear actors affect in the old westerns. One reviewer on Audible stated that he was Native American from Sante Fe, New Mexico (the setting of the book) and that the narration was almost offensive.

The other problem with her narration was enunciation. Instead of pronouncing the name Chee as it's spelt, she pronounced it "she". I thought she was reading, "She said..." instead of "Chee said..." I thought she was speaking as a female. Very confusing.

I wish I had read the book in print format. I may have enjoyed it better. I still could since I have the Kindle version, but I will give it a pass. Why have hamburger when I could have steak?