This week's guest on REPORT FROM SANTA FE is Anne Hillerman, award-winning novelist and journalist, discussing her new novel "Song of the Lion," the third in her New York Times best-selling Leaphorn. Chee, and Manuelito series

Hillerman adapted her novels from the iconic Navajo Tribal police series written by her late father Tony Hillerman. Anne Hillerman elevated one of her father’s minor characters, Bernadette Manuelito, giving herself room to make the books her own, while continuing on the lives and mysteries of Tony Hillerman’s beloved characters Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn.

Anne explains, "I always liked Bernie, and saw her as a character with more potential than Dad gave her. When I decided that I would attempt a novel in his footsteps, I knew that I could not pretend to be him. I had to give the continuation of the series my voice, but stay true to the guidelines he had established.”

Song of the Lion, like all of the books in the ever growing series, deals with the cultural and social issues of life on the Navajo Reservation. Set at the Grand Canyon, Hillerman addresses current plans to develop a mega-resort on Navajo land and the conflicts that emerge among cultural Native American and Navajo values, environmental interests, and greedy developers.

Quotes:· "Hillermann seamlessly blends tribal lore and custom into a well-directed plot, continuing in the spirit of her late father, Tony, by keeping his characters (like Chee) in the mix, but still establishing Manuelito as the main player in what has become a fine legacy series.” -- Booklist review of "Song of the Lion"

· "Fans of Leaphorn, Chee, and Manuelito, characters created by the author’s father, Tony Hillerman, will savor this multilayered story of suspense, with its background of contemporary environmental versus development issues." -- The Library Journal