He grew up in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, attending elementary and high school with Potawatomi children.

[3] Jeffrey Herlihy argues that this background made possible "a significantly different portrayal of Native Americans in his writing",[4] in comparison to other authors of his time.

"[5] Hillerman was a decorated combat veteran of World War II, serving from August 1943 to October 1945 as a mortarman in the 103rd Infantry Division in the European theatre.

He was wounded in 1945, and the injuries included broken legs, foot, and ankle, facial burns, and temporary blindness.

[7][8] Hillerman's writing is noted for the cultural details he provides about his subjects: Hopi, Zuni, European settlers, federal agents, and especially the Navajo Nation Police.

The Upfield novels were first published in 1928 and featured a half-European, half-aboriginal Australian hero, Detective-Inspector Napoleon (Bony) Bonaparte.

The character was based on the achievements of an Aboriginal person known as Tracker Leon, whom Upfield had met during his years in the Australian bush.

"When my own Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police unravels a mystery because he understands the ways of his people, when he reads the signs in the sandy bottom of a reservation arroyo, he is walking in the tracks Bony made 50 years ago.

"[10] He also mentioned Eric Ambler, Graham Greene, and Raymond Chandler as authors who influenced him as he wrote the Leaphorn and Chee novels.

[11] Tony Hillerman died on October 26, 2008, of pulmonary failure in Albuquerque at the age of 83,[3] and was interred at Santa Fe National Cemetery.

[16] Dance Hall of the Dead, published in 1973, earned Hillerman the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in 1987, a French international literary honor.

[1] He was again nominated for the "Best Mystery Novel" Edgar Award in 1979 for Listening Woman and lastly in 1989 for A Thief of Time.

[1] Hillerman's non-fictional work Talking Mysteries was nominated in 1992 for the Edgar Award in the "Best Critical or Biographical" category.

[19] In 1987, Hillerman received the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière for Dance Hall of the Dead.

Leaphorn is the victim of an assassination attempt, spends half of the book in a coma, and later was severely limited in his ability to communicate.

Chee and Bernadette Manuelito are the crime solvers from that book forward in the series, with Leaphorn never fully active in the investigations (though he regains his faculties over time and consults often).