The Great Taos Bank Robbery: And Other Indian Country Affairs

"Great Taos Bank Robbery" is a collection of short pieces, dating from the time Tony Hillerman was a brilliant, and very funny newspaper reporter covering the 20th century western culture later featured in his novels. A great treat to bring on a Colorado vacation!

The Great Taos Bank Robbery would have occurred on November 11, 1957, except the bank was closed for Veterans Day. Thus it seems appropriate to write this review tonight in the hopes that it will post on November 12th, the actual date when the robbery did not occur. Tony Hillerman makes a convincing case for the bank robbery, noting the unique elements that one of the male malefactors was dressed as a woman, that the robbers waited in line with courtesy and patience, and that the getaway vehicle was borrowed from a local resident. Actual shots were fired at the minister, but this was after the robbers left the bank where the robbery did not occur. A three day manhunt ensued, during which time some of the residents bought the robbers groceries or otherwise fed them. Hillerman equates the Great Taos Bank Robbery of 1957 with the equally Great Taos Flood of 1935, noting that Taos does not have a river and receives very little rain. Hillerman's handling of this true crime narrative is masterly, but the reader is advised to proceed with caution as it is possible to hurt oneself laughing. So begins an excellent little guidebook to the Four Corners region of America. Some of these little essays are somber "The Very Heart of Our Country" about the Navajos return to their homeland. Another one "We All Fall Down" is scary, detailing the propensity for the Black Death to stalk the region every few years. Tony Hillerman died on Oct 26, 2008. This review is posted by a grateful fan. Because of his writings, I was inspired to make several visits to New Mexico and Arizona to see the landscapes he writes about. Thanks for the memories, Tony!

This was a fun read about the many different faces of New Mexico. Short stories that can be read in a single sitting. The stories cover the quirky people to the scientific discoveries that are mostly set in New Mexico.

True stories written with Hillerman's quiet humor -- the New Mexico that was before the Yuppies turned it into Starbuck's Central and a New Mexico that still exists in quiet corners of a wonderful state. The tales are best read one or two at a time and savored. A great gift for lovers of New Mexico, the genuine Old West or an Easterner interesting in learning about the land that lies beyond the traffic jams.

Readers expecting Leaphorn and Chee will be disappointed -- but this is a wonderful book, a collection of essays from Hillerman's journalist days. He neatly skewers Indian-wannabes in "The Navajo Who Had So Many Friends ...," although "The Messenger Birds" and the piece on Mt. Taylor prove (as if we didn't know it already) that he's highly sensitive to the Native American point of view. And although the hilarious title story is mostly of historical interest in today's post-hippie Taos, it'll strike a responsive chord with anyone who's spent time in rural NM. The essay on Reies Tijerina elucidates the (still) sore point of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and its land-grant repercussions ... and yes, we do still have bubonic plague here, although in the era of antibiotics it's not the threat it was in medieval Europe. For someone who wants a sense of what New Mexico is REALLY all about, I recommend this as far and away the best book on the subject (a good runner-up is Stan Crawford's "Majordomo").