The first crime fiction convention panel I was ever on was moderated by Tony Hillerman and it ruined me for any panel I was on afterward because he was as good a raconteur out loud as he was on the page. This collection of Tony’s articles and tales is proof positive, from the hilarious title story of the bank robbery that wasn’t up to the failed saga of Reies Lopez Tijerina to return lands to the impoverished heirs of Spanish land grants. And the one about the 1961 almost outbreak of the bubonic plague in New Mexico should have been required reading in the White House in 2017.
Recommended whether or not you like his crime fiction novels, and if you don’t, why don’t you? The first chapter of Skinwalkers is hands down an example of the best writing in the genre or, hell, the English language.