In her debut effort to continue the series, Anne Hillerman has given the reader an exceptionally detailed plot and long list of characters.

Officer Bernadette Manuelito witnesses someone shoot Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn in the head and escape in a 2-door blue sedan with an Arizona license plate.

Her son Jackson, who uses it to drive to the University of New Mexico with his friend "Lizard" Leonard Nez, left it at Basha's grocery for her.

Manuelito learns that Leaphorn was evaluating the assessed valuation of a proposed acquisition from the Grove McManus Foundation, headquartered in Japan.

Chee remembers that he and Leaphorn once rescued Ellie Friedman at Chaco Canyon when a man named Randall Eliott tried to kill her.

Jackson Bernally phones Chee to tell him that he uses his mother's car on the weekends at his southern Colorado job on the Double X Ranch.

Manuelito frees Chee, and The police finally arrive (the office landline was out of order so the attendant ran toa nearby business).

The book won the 2014 Spur Award for Best First Novel from the Western Writers of America, and landed on the New York Times Best Seller list.

– Joe Hartlob, Bookreporter.com [7] "With big shoes to fill, Hillerman does her best to copy the style of her father Tony’s beloved series, maintaining the integrity of Navajo culture throughout.

– Kirkus Reviews[8] James Blasingame for the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy commended Anne Hillerman for keeping the subject matter at a PG level.

[9] "Spider Woman’s Daughter continues the Hillerman tradition, providing likable heroes against despicable villains coming together in unusual and intriguing situations in a glorious, little-understood world."