Hillerman & Grove

Two of the Greats have left us--Fred Grove and Tony Hillerman

I was saddened to hear of the death of one of my all time favorite writers, Tony Hillerman, his research allowed his readers to learn as they followed Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee in search of the bad guys in Navaho country. He was a great writer and one who will be sorely missed. Then the somewhat late announcement that ninety year old writer Fred Grove passed on in September left me with another void in my reading life. Many readers of today’s westerns have not heard of Fred but he was a truly unique writer and his half Indian ancestry gave him a unique perspective to write from. I was never interested in horse racing, except for an occasional Triple Crown race on television, but his tails of racing in years past were excellent with great stories. I have read most of Tony Hillerman’s novels and five or six of Fred Grove’s and I will continue reading their great stuff. Writers and readers of western novels have lost a couple of superstars—Vaya con dias.