Order of Anne Hillerman Books

Born on October 2, 1949, Anne Hillerman didn’t just inherit her father’s name — she inherited a legacy wrapped in desert dust, tribal truths, and mysteries whispered through canyon winds. She is the daughter of the legendary Tony Hillerman, the man who brought Navajo detectives Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee to life — and when he passed in 2008, many feared that the stories of the Diné people and the arid mystique of the Four Corners would vanish into literary silence. But Anne? She had a different idea.

With a pen as precise as a scalpel and a heart pulsing with reverence for the land and its stories, Anne took up the sacred torch. But don’t mistake her as merely continuing her father’s work — she revived, expanded, and reimagined the world of Navajo crime fiction with a distinctly feminine force. In 2013, she breathed new life into the series with Spider Woman’s Daughter, where the spotlight shifted to Bernie Manuelito — a tough, intuitive, and deeply human Navajo policewoman. With that, Anne didn’t just continue the series; she reshaped its heartbeat.

Anne Hillerman’s own path to literary acclaim wasn’t a straight road but a winding trail through storytelling in many forms. She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of New Mexico, and later a master's in professional writing from the University of Texas at El Paso. Before fiction seduced her fully, Anne made her mark as a journalist, editor, and non-fiction author — writing about food, travel, and the culture of New Mexico, where she lives to this day with her photographer husband, Don Strel.

And perhaps that’s the irony of Anne’s rise — she spent years chronicling the world as it is, only to later craft stories about the world as it feels. She wrote with logic for newspapers and magazines, then followed intuition into the shadows of mystery fiction. She knew facts, but now she spins them into tales of murder, moral struggle, and ancestral echoes.

Anne’s work is steeped in respect — for the Navajo Nation, for the land, and for the spiritual web that ties people to place. Her stories are more than mysteries; they are love letters to the Southwest, to tradition, and to the endurance of culture amidst chaos. And the characters? They’re not just solving crimes — they’re navigating identity, heritage, and the quiet war between modern justice and ancient wisdom.

What makes her so compelling isn’t just that she’s Tony Hillerman’s daughter. It’s that she dares to challenge the very legacy she cherishes, carving her own voice into sandstone cliffs and sacred ground.

She hasn’t died — not literally, anyway — but the Anne Hillerman who once wrote about restaurant reviews has long since vanished. In her place stands a literary matriarch of mystery, proving that legacies don’t end — they evolve.

And trust me — you’ll want to see where she takes Joe Leaphorn, Jim Chee, and Bernie Manuelito next. The desert still holds secrets, and Anne Hillerman? She’s listening.