Seldom Disappointed; A Memoir, Tony Hillerman (Harper Collins, 2001)****

This absorbing recollection of a fascinating life is must reading for any fan of Tony Hillerman. It reads like a novel. He reminisces about his early years as a country boy in Oklahoma at a time when there was little money to be had. He grew up there through the depression years with an older brother and sister and attended a small church school that primarily taught Indian girls but accepted local boys and girls because it was the nearest school. Following Pearl Harbor, he served in the Army as an enlisted man in the European campaign (a very interesting part of his memoirs), and was seriously wounded near the close of the war, earning a Silver and Bronze Star in addition to the Purple Heart.

Following the war, he attended Oklahoma University, during which time he met his wife-to-be, Marie, while he was earning a degree in Journalism. He goes on to describe his various adventures as a journalist and newlywed, which eventually took him to Santa Fe. From there he went on to the University of New Mexico, where he worked for the university president and taught classes in writing and journalism while raising a family of six children, most of whom were adopted. While at the university he began writing the first of a series of mystery novels involving two Navajo tribal policemen for which he is now famous. He went on to become the president of the Mystery Writers of America and won numerous other prestigious literary awards. He continues to write new novels in this series and will be among the first American writers to have their work dramatized on the PBS Mystery Series (November 24, 2002).

He details how and why he chose to write about such unusual characters and discusses each of his books at the end of his memoirs. I cannot do justice to the man or his work in this brief review but regardless of whether or not you are a Hillerman fan, you will find his memoirs fascinating, moving and – seldom disappointing.