Skinwalkers

Skin Walkers
Read an interview with Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman's best-selling novel is the first American Mystery!
Edited by Mary Eileen O'Connor

For 22 years, viewers have followed the escapades of such famous British sleuths as Sherlock Holmes, Inspector Morse, Hercule Poirot and Hetty Wainthropp on the popular Mystery! series.

Now, Mystery! producers have tapped into the wealth of stories by writers on this side of the Atlantic, choosing Tony Hillerman’s breakthrough Navajo police novel Skinwalkers as the basis for the first American Mystery!, airing Sunday, November 24 at 9 p.m. on WHYY TV12.

Directed by award-winning filmmaker Chris Eyre (Smoke Signals), Skinwalkers is the first in a projected series of Hillerman stories on Mystery!

Academy Award winner Robert Redford serves as executive producer of the film, which follows the team of Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Officer Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police. "The Chee and Leaphorn mysteries have been a passion project of mine for 14 years," says Redford. The project was a family affair – Redford’s son James adapted the script from Hillerman’s novel.

Instead of being stalked through the London fog by Holmes and Watson, perpetrators will be tracked across the high plains of the American Southwest by Leaphorn and Chee, a detective duo with uniquely complementary skills.

Acclaimed actor Wes Studi (The Last of the Mohicans, Dances with Wolves) plays Leaphorn, the seasoned older cop, assimilated to the urban ways of Phoenix, Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Adam Beach (Windtalkers) is Chee, an FBI Academy grad with a sideline as a traditional Navajo healer.

It’s a useful skill, since the story involves a mysterious killer who has a special antipathy for medicine men, including Chee. Evidence suggests the murderer is a "skinwalker," a Navajo witch with the supernatural power to change from human to animal, move with lightning speed and to kill with unseen powers and curses.

"We’re proud to bring Tony Hillerman’s unique talent to public television audiences," says Mystery! executive producer Rebecca Eaton. "Viewers are going to love Skinwalkers for the same reasons we do: its vivid depiction of Native American culture; strong, complex characters; and edge-of-your-seat suspense."

Skinwalkers, An American Mystery! Special airs Sunday, November 24 at 9 p.m. on WHYY TV12.