SOURCE: Menefee, Christine C. “Adult Books for Young Adults.” School Library Journal 45, no. 1 (January 1999): 158-59.

In the following excerpt, Menefee calls The First Eagle “a disturbing but fascinating story,” and praises Hillerman's skillful portrayal of the southwestern landscape and its Native American culture and people.

[In The First Eagle] acting Lieutenant Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police is investigating the murder of a fellow officer—apparently committed by a young Hopi poaching eagles for ceremonial purposes. Chee's former mentor, Joe Leaphorn, is now retired and on his first case as a private detective, looking for a missing biologist who has been studying the spread of infectious diseases on the reservation. The men's destinies intersect once more in this case in which clues, like eagles, can only be found and understood by those who belong to the world of the reservation. Hillerman communicates a sense of the great...