Sad news: Tony Hillerman passes

One of the my oldest friends from the crime writing world, Tony Hillerman, author of the Leaphorn and Chee Navajo mysteries, died Sunday of pulmonary failure at 83. Marilyn Stasio – the NY Times crime fiction reviewer – has an excellent obituary here.

I have many personal tales to tell of Tony. He was an incredibly generous man to me and to other younger (at the time) mystery writers. Unfortunately, I am under Pajamas TV pressure and cannot go into them extensively at this moment, except to note that one of my cherished memories is a tour Tony took me on of the Indian pueblos of New Mexico in the mid-Seventies. Not surprisingly, he was an honored guest by the tribal chieftains. We were treated well.