Reading Order
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Start with Spider Woman's Daughter and continue through all 10 books in the listed reading order.
Start Here
Start with Spider Woman's Daughter
Book 1 by Anne Hillerman • Published 2013
Over breakfast with fellow Navajo officers, Bernadette Manuelito sees her mentor, Lt. Joe Leaphorn, gunned down outside a restaurant and is barred from the case as an eyewitness. Refusing to stay on the sidelines, she...
Complete List
Leaphorn Chee reading order
Ends with Shadow of the Solstice
- 1
Book 1:Spider Woman's Daughter
Anne Hillerman • 2013
Over breakfast with fellow Navajo officers, Bernadette Manuelito sees her mentor, Lt. Joe Leaphorn, gunned down outside a restaurant and is barred from the case as an eyewitness. Refusing to stay on the sidelines, she...
- 2
Book 2:Rock with Wings
Anne Hillerman • 2015
Jim Chee and Bernadette Manuelito hope a favor for a relative will double as a quick getaway, but separate assignments in Shiprock and Monument Valley pull them into a missing-woman case, a botched drug bust, suspicio...
- 3
Book 3:Song of the Lion
Anne Hillerman • 2017
When a car bomb explodes outside a high school basketball game, killing a young man, Bernadette Manuelito joins the investigation while Jim Chee is assigned to protect an attorney mediating a fierce fight over a Grand...
- 4
Book 4:Cave of Bones
Anne Hillerman • 2018
At a wilderness program for at-risk girls, Bernadette Manuelito confronts chaos: a missing instructor and a teen who claims to have found a cave full of bones. Searching the lava badlands and a linked cold case, Berni...
- 5
Book 5:The Tale Teller
Anne Hillerman • 2019
Recovering from a head injury, retired lieutenant Joe Leaphorn is hired to find a missing ceremonial dress and silver bracelet donated to the Navajo Nation museum. When a young woman dies outside the library, he, Jim...
- 6
Book 6:Stargazer
Anne Hillerman • 2021
On a day that already includes serving a warrant, moving cattle and stumbling onto a crime scene, Bernadette Manuelito is asked to help find her former roommate Maya. After Maya confesses to killing her astronomer hus...
- 7
Book 7:The Sacred Bridge
Anne Hillerman • 2022
Jim Chee's reflective trip to Antelope Canyon and Rainbow Bridge turns deadly when he discovers a Navajo rock-art enthusiast floating in Lake Powell, drawing him into questions of looted artifacts and sacred sites. Ba...
- 8
Book 8:The Way of the Bear
Anne Hillerman • 2023
At Utah's Bears Ears, Bernadette Manuelito and Jim Chee confront the puzzling death of a paleontologist who froze near his car and a second killing staged as a home invasion. Fossil theft, blizzards and buried resentm...
- 9
Book 9:Lost Birds
Anne Hillerman • 2024
Now a private investigator, Joe Leaphorn takes two cases: helping a school custodian find his missing singer wife and assisting an adoptee searching for her Navajo birth family. When an explosion devastates a reservat...
- 10
Book 10:Shadow of the Solstice
Anne Hillerman • 2025
Two parallel crises test the Navajo Nation. A fraudulent rehab center traps vulnerable patients, including a grandmother desperate to help her addicted grandson, while Bernadette Manuelito prepares for a high-profile...
Quick Answers
Leaphorn Chee FAQ
What is the best order to read the Leaphorn Chee series?
The recommended reading order is the numbered order shown on this page, starting with Spider Woman's Daughter.
How many books are in the Leaphorn Chee series?
There are 10 books currently listed in the Leaphorn Chee series on GurusReads.
Where should I start with the Leaphorn Chee series?
New readers should start with Spider Woman's Daughter, the first book in the reading order.
Is the Leaphorn Chee series complete?
Based on the publication years we have, the series appears possibly ongoing and spans releases from 2013 to 2025.