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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — In her debut novel, “Spider Woman’s Daughter,” Anne Hillerman did what she had to do: Establish herself as a mystery writer with a literary voice distinct from her father’s. Tony Hillerman was the author of a best-selling mystery series set mostly on the Navajo reservation.

As a sign of continuity, she set that first novel and her new one, “Rock With Wings,” on the rez.

In “Rock With Wings,” the pursuit of apparent criminals is present but it takes a back seat to the exploration of other matters of interest to the main characters. I enjoyed how Hillerman ties together strands of Navajo culture through sometimes rambling dialogue with brief, thoughtful narrative passages slipped in. Those strands explore Navajo family dynamics (wife-husband, mother-daughter, sisters, cousins), Navajo mythology and the timeless beauty of the reservation’s Four Corners landscape.

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Here is Navajo police Sgt. Jim Chee, one of the lead characters, thinking about how spectacular the colors of Monument Valley are and linking those thoughts to Navajo mythology: “… Diné stories confirmed Chee’s observation that this place was special and blessed. The valley had been the interior of a giant hogan, with some pinnacles tourists called Gray Whiskers and Sentinel as its doorposts. His people also considered the two soaring buttes known as the Mittens to be the hands of a Holy Person, left behind in stone to remind the Navajos that they weren’t alone.”

“Rock With Wings, A Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito Novel” by Anne Hillerman, Harper, $27.99, 320 pp. Anne Hillerman book events May 20, noon, Mystery Book Club, Stella’s Italian Restaurant, Taos, 575-758-3050

noon, Mystery Book Club, Stella’s Italian Restaurant, Taos, 575-758-3050 May 20, 6 p.m., talk and book signing, Moby Dickens Bookshop, Taos, 575-758-3050

6 p.m., talk and book signing, Moby Dickens Bookshop, Taos, 575-758-3050 May 23, 2-4 p.m. Talk and signing for the Tony Hillerman Birthday Celebration, Tony Hillerman Library, 8205 Apache NE, Albuquerque, 505-291-6264, wyoming@cabq.gov

2-4 p.m. Talk and signing for the Tony Hillerman Birthday Celebration, Tony Hillerman Library, 8205 Apache NE, Albuquerque, 505-291-6264, wyoming@cabq.gov May 28, 7 p.m., talk and book signing, Rotunda, Mesa Public Library, Los Alamos, 505-662-8247

7 p.m., talk and book signing, Rotunda, Mesa Public Library, Los Alamos, 505-662-8247 May 29, 7 p.m., An Evening with Anne Hillerman: Stories of My Dad, Tony Hillerman Bloomfield Multicultural Center, 333 S. First St., Bloomfield, 505-632-8315. Sponsored by the Bloomfield Public Library

(Diné means the Navajo people. The landscape provides the book’s title. Tsé Bit’a’i, or Rock with Wings, is what Navajos call the iconic rock formation Shiprock. There’s a glossary of Navajo words at the back of the book.)

These cultural references are informative and pleasurable, certainly more interesting than the slow, meandering development of what should make this a mystery. The novel lacks the swelling tension needed to hold the reader’s interest in crimes committed, investigated and solved.

The novel doesn’t want for mysterious characters, however. It opens with Navajo police officer Bernadette Manuelito stopping a motorist speeding along a narrow, curving road at night. The nervous driver, Miller is his name, tries to bribe Manuelito so he can be on his way: Take $500 and a rifle.

Miller starts sweating when Manuelito finds something strange in the trunk – cardboard boxes filled with dirt. Manuelito arrests him for attempted bribery.

Fed by her lingering suspicions, Manuelito is tenacious about finding what criminal activity Miller might be hiding. Her colleagues seem indifferent to her efforts. One federal agent even stonewalls her queries. Finally, retired police Lt. Joe Leaphorn, at home recovering from a gunshot wound, helps.

Another mystery man is David Oster. He’s a California entrepreneur who wants to set up solar panels on the reservation. Great idea, but Oster seems to be pushing too hard, too fast, especially when it comes to trying to force old-timers off their property.

Manuelito unmasks Oster as a schemer. Indeed, Oster and Miller are artful dodgers.

Manuelito is married to Sgt. Chee, who is assigned to keep an eye on the production of a horror film in Monument Valley. The production provides the book with more undesirable characters.

Chee’s first task is to search for a missing bookkeeper. He finds her taking photos of the landscape. They happen on a strange, and possibly illegal, grave site. Chee wants to know if the grave is linked to the film shoot. A meeting Chee is to have with the film’s producer is short-circuited by the discovery of the body of the film camp’s security man in the producer’s hotel room. Was he murdered?

The book lopes back and forth between Chee’s and Manuelito’s separate investigations.