Rating: 
Summary: Coming of Age Issues Revisited
Review: Moon Mathias's younger brother died in South Vietnam in a helicopter crash. It seemed that his brother Ricky had a daughter. Arrangements were made to send the child from Vietnam to the Philippines. Moon's mother has traveled from Florida to California enroute to the Philippines when she has a heart attack at the airport. Moon is a journalist, the managing editor of a newspaper in Colorado, and as Ricky's only sibling he is called upon to journey in his mother's stead to the Far East. Arriving in Manila Moon learns that the child has not arrived and that things are heating up in Vietnam and Cambodia. In his meeting with the lawyer little is gained. In Manila a woman with a Dutch name finds him. She seeks him out under the impression that he plans to take over his brother's business and would be in a position to help her find her brother, a Lutheran missionary. Eventually Moon, the woman, and a Chinese man seeking the ashes of an ancestor travel to the vicinity of the child's mother's village and amazingly find the child and learn in convincing fashion of the death of the brother. Moon then decides to travel with the child to the United States and to return to Manila in order to be with the woman and to run his brother's business. What has been created in this excellent work is a sort of coming of age story of a middle-aged person. The past has been put to rest and the future beckons. The adventure aspects of the tale are very exciting.
Rating: 
Summary: Not one of his best
Review: Though I understand that Hillerman might want a break from his successful "Chee and Leaphorn" books, I too feel that he was a little out of his element on this one..
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