SOME ACTUAL GOOD NEWS

Every once in awhile, it’s good to find out something is going to happen that has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Democrats, Republicans, contemporary politics, the future of the country, or anything else we all can’t help but obsess over these days.

Tom, what is that news, you ask.

It’s the news that my favorite forever series of mystery novels is coming to cable as a series, that - if it’s successful and well-received -. will do each of the novels as a season’s episodes.

The plan is to dramatize the “Navajo novels” of Tony Hillerman, aka the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee novels.

For those unfamiliar, Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Officer Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police are Native American crime-solvers. The stories are set on the Navajo Nation and the Pueblo Nations in the states of Arizona and New Mexico. I’ve read every one of them. More than once.

The series is being executive produced by George R.R. Martin, the author of the novels on which “Game of Thrones” was based, and Robert Redford, who has owned the rights to the novels for 35 years that I know of and has been trying all that time to get them done, originally as a series of feature films, of which “The Dark Wind” was done, with “Skinwalkers” and “A Thief of Time” (the novel that “crossed over” from Genre to New York Times best seller back in 1988) done on PBS “American Mystery” series that only lasted long enough to do these two shows.

The stories have as much to do with deep dives into Navajo culture as they do with any crime being solved, and the crime solving is done “Native American style.”

The Native American roles are being played by Native American actors. The writing staff is all Native American. The shows are shot on location in the Navajo Nation and the Pueblos.

“The Dark Winds” comes to AMC as a six-episode season on June 12.

I am REALLY looking forward to this!