Rating: 
Summary: Not bad, but not the usual Hillerman
Review: I have read all of Tony Hillerman's books, and have learned a great deal about the Navajo people and their culture. I think I enjoy the descriptions of setting and folkways more than the plots of his books. This one was short on description of sky and mountains and weather. Hillerman seems to have decided that since he has written so much of Navajo ceremonies and the nature of the people, that he doesn't have to tell us any more. I felt a great lack of what I enjoy most. I also felt that the book lurched along from an unprepossessing start in Washington D. C. through a series of events that never quite explained everything. I expected more to be said of the ripoff of royalties for gas and oil, because it seemed to be introduced as an important problem early on. This won't stop me from reading the next thing Hillerman writes, but I hope the next one is more organic in structure and contains the old poetic quality when he writes of the people and the land.
Rating:
Summary: Is that really you, Tony?
Review: First, you should know I'm a big Tony Hillerman fan. I have read all his Four Corners novels. I have sought out other books by him, including travel guides. I have taken a special interest in Hillerman interviews. My wife is equally devoted. It was partly because of Hillerman that we have made three trips to Navajo country.His books have always been well crafted, I think, with tight, intriguing plots. I don't think there has been one I wasn't anxious to finish, to find out the who, how, and why. But that isn't what makes Hillerman books special. Tony Hillerman has taken us inside the Navajo culture, revealing its history, its customs, its religious traditions. He has shown us the divisions and ambivalence that exist within that world, between those who revere and practice the old ways and those who would reject or suppress them. He has shown us the subtle but important differences between the Navajo and the Hopi and Zuni and other tribes. He has done all this with the utmost respect. Tony Hillerman has also captured the land. His descriptions of the mountains, the canyons, the vast isolation, are magnificent. On our first trip to New Mexico, we went to Shiprock as though on a pilgrimage. We bought a copy of the Triple-A Indian Country map and followed rugged roads. It was deja vu. We were convinced that Mr. Hillerman knew and loved every square mile of that vast country as well as any Jim Chee. But I'm talking about the first nine novels. Something has happened with the last three (or is it four? I may have lost count) that I don't understand. There seems to be a blandness to it all now. I don't feel the intimacy with the country or the people. The visions of mesas and mountains no longer soar. The plots are ok, I guess, but the rest of it is, well, kind of dull. I read in an interview that Mr. Hillerman had intended to finish the series with nine books. Three featuring Joe Leaphorn, three with Jim Chee, and three with both. Now I wonder. Did Tony Hillerman stop with nine? Is someone writing for him now? Is the pressure to publish so great that a ghost writer has assumed responsibility for the last several novels? Or, more dreadful possibility, is Tony Hillerman unable to write anymore? I understand he has battled cancer. I pray that illness is not preventing him from authoring his own material. My guess is that Mr. Hillerman is still coming up with plot ideas and the basic structure of his novels, but that some other person or persons is supplying the word count. How else to explain the difference? Where has the magic gone?
Rating: 
Summary: Up to Par
Review: Bernie Manulito (sp?) and Cowboy Dashee have joined the ranks of federal law enforcement officers and both figure prominently in this story. In a less gifted author, it would all seem too convenient but Hillerman's writing is seamless.
Bernie has taken another job to get away from Jim Chee and what she perceives to be his ambivalence toward her. As a border patrol agent, she stumbles across some illegal activity which places her danger. This danger gives her an opportunity for more action in the book and gives Jim a reason to seek her out.
Meanwhile Jim Chee is miserable without her but does not know what to do about it. Both Joe Leaphorn and Cowboy Dashee become involved in the mystery, and the people who pose the biggest threat to Bernie are taken down in the end. There is a pleasant surprise in the take-down scene.
This was a delightful story that goes by much too quickly. It seems shorter than his other novels, but I liked it much more than the last one he wrote. I only gave it four stars because he has written other novels I like more that I would give five stars to, but taken by itself and not in comparison with his other novels, I'd give it five stars.
Hillerman is by far one of the best novelists of our time. I dread the thought of his last book and with every new book, I fear it will be his last. I have learned a great deal about Navajo history, culture and religion from his books while having a good time with the mysteries therein.
Rating:
Summary: Not his best, but still better than most
Review: Tony Hillerman falls off his stride when he attempt to plot a story around high-falutin' eastern types. But how can any story that features Joe Leaphorn and his magical maps--even if only tangentially--fail to enchant a listener? The final compilation is not Hillerman's best, but it is still a whole lot better than a whole lot else out there. The audio version is wonderfully read by Geroge Guidall.
Rating:
Summary: Leaphorn and Chee offstage too much
Review: I eagerly await each new Hillerman book spotlighting the compelling duo of Native American lawmen Leaphorn and Chee. The author has defined these two in a low-key, nicely detailed manner that makes them compelling and comfortable, story after story. Why, oh why does Hillerman keep his appealing heroes offstage for so long in this latest outing? He continually cuts away from the good guys to focus on the bad guys, who are uninteresting and mundane.
I've devoured every Leaphorn/Chee mystery, and am sad to report that this is by far the weakest. But onward and upward, Mr. Hillerman. Bring on some more.
Rating: 
Summary: Different, But Still Very Good
Review: The Sinister Pig (2003) is the most recent installment of Tony Hillerman's series of mystery novels set in and around the Four Corners area of the Southwestern United States. It is another superb novel, and nearly on par with his other works. The Sinister Pig offers many characters familiar to Hillerman's readers. Jim Chee continues to be a main focus, as does his prospective love interest, Bernadette Manuelito, now a novice customs officer working in southern New Mexico. Manuelito stumbles into trouble, drawing Chee and a host of others into the picture. Not the least of these others is the "legendary" ex-Captain Joe Leaphorn and his new "sidekick" character, Dr. Bourbonet. Several new characters - a Guatemalan exile, a Washington DC attorney and an erstwhile law student -- are particular to this story. Still, they're well-written and compelling, and extend the depth of the story past the usual boundaries of a mystery. As the story develops, the reader will notice a series of evolutionary departures from Hillerman's standard fare. Foremost among these is the fact that story reads less like a mystery than a suspense novel. While it's true that there is a murder, and it is something of a mystery, the good guys and the bad guys all have their identities and roles out on the table pretty early on in the book. From there, the reader gets to anticipate whether the good guys (Chee, Manuelito, Leaphorn and a few others) will find and capture the bad guys before they succeed in any of their nefarious plans. Since the reader knows how the pieces fit together before the characters, the story really revolves around the suspense, rather than the "whodunit" aspect of the plot. At the same time, some other changes seem to be brewing in Hillerman's writing. First, while Hillerman has always shifted points of view frequently in his stories, it seems like no point of view is particularly dominant in this book. From my recollection, that's a little different than in his earlier writing. Chee, Manuelito, Leaphorn and three major characters particular to this book all get some time in front of the point-of-view lens. It doesn't hamper the story, but for those used to watching Chee or Leaphorn solve a mystery, it's a little new. The other key difference is that much of this novel takes place off the Navajo reservation that's so familiar to Hillerman readers. While that doesn't hamper the story either, for me it left the novel with a very different feel. Prior works were well-steeped in Navajo (and sometimes Hopi) cultural flavor, and I enjoyed this aspect of his works. That flavor, for me, got largely crowded out by other story elements in this book. It didn't ruin the work, but I did find that I missed that content, and hope he returns to it in the future. Far from harming the work, these differences and changes simply present the story in a different light. Sinister Pig is an excellent novel, and well lives up to the expectations that Hillerman's readers have. I give it five stars for it's strong story, good characters and compelling tempo. I don't think readers, whether they've read Hillerman before or not, could be disappointed by this book.
Rating:
Summary: First time reader - disappointed
Review: This is my first Hillerman experience. I must say that overall, I am disappointed. The plot is good, and the intricate workings of the plot are also good. But the overall read is a stumbling, rocky road. I kept looking for smooth transition from character development to plot happenings, and it just wasn't there. What I did find was an overage of long sentences, and romantic references that didn't seem to fit.
Because this is my first Hillerman read; and given his apparent accomplishments, I have resolved to give him another chance. Unless you hold a significant interest in pipeline technology, I wouldn't start with this one.
Rick
Rating:
Summary: More like a screen play?
Review: I live in ABQ and travel NM a lot. I missed the sincere familiarization of geography with "PIG". Each succesive book I read by Mr. Hillerman reminds me more of a TV screen play and less like a novel along the lines of Clancy. There is so much room for more details in the Hillerman books. Two of his novels are currently being filmed here in NM for a PBS showing in November, lending credence to my thoughts.
Tony- please give us a great novel to remember you by, not a screen play. I'll anxiously await the next Hillerman mystery.
Rating:
Summary: Calling attention to a problem
Review: The acknowledgements at the beginning of this book tell the reader why this book was written. Mr. Hillerman mentions "the Department of the Interior's efforts to explain what has happened to $176,000,000 (billions!!!) of Indian oil, gas, coal, timber, etc-royalties which it can't seem to account for." In reading this book, it seemed as if Mr. Hillerman's outrage over this little publicized situation and his effort to call attention to it, led him to give less attention to his usual complexity of character and setting. This book was perfect for airplane reading and may lead me to learn more about the missing royalities. It may also lead me to read "Seldom Disappointed" to learn more about Tony Hillerman and what makes him tick.
Rating:
Summary: Leaphorn, Chee and Bernie vs. international drug lords
Review: As a longtime fan of Tony Hillerman's mystery series involving Navajo policemen Joe Leaphorn, Jim Chee, and now Bernie Manuelito, I picked this one up based purely on name recognition. As I read the book, however, I began to wonder if it had actually been written by Hillerman. The plot involves Washington, D.C. politicos involved in drug-running between Mexico and the U.S. There is some soap-boxing about missing royalties owed Native American tribes from the U.S. government, and a couple honorable assassins thrown in to spice things up. The setup is interesting enough, with a man sent out to the Four Corners region to do some investigating, shot in the back, and then a follow-up investigation by Sgt. Jim Chee. Meanwhile, Chee's would-be girlfriend has become Border Patrol Officer Manuelito down in the bootheel of New Mexico. In fact, most of the action in the story is done by Bernie, although Leaphorn figures out most of the details with his powers of deduction and a couple maps. Chee just kind of ties things together. What disappointed me is that although the characters are moving along, the spirit seems to have gone out of Hillerman's writing. The vivid details of the landscape and geography are missing, along with the spirituality of Chee. Most of the Navajo cultural notes that made the earlier novels interesting are just kind of hinted at and it is assumed that the reader has read the other works. If this was the first Hillerman mystery I picked up, I would probably skip the rest.
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