Rating: 
Summary: Not Up to His Standards
Review: As a long time Hillerman fan, this book was not up to his standards. Most of the story dealt with Washington politics and corporate crime. There was little suspence, as the conclusion was obvious almost from the start. I hope Hillerman goes back to his stories of life in the southwest and Navajo culture.
Rating: 
Summary: Bernie Manuelito Tangles with a Corrupt Power Broker
Review: The Sinister Pig is one of Tony Hillerman's deftest plots and best designed stories. Be careful not to read reviews that tell too much of the plot, or much of the book's pleasure will be needlessly spoiled for you. Some will not like this story as much as previous ones because it moves into new ground, both geographically and story-telling-wise. Having that reaction is like failing to appreciate the latest model of Ferrari while being totally fixated on the 1950s versions. Be open to the evolution of Mr. Hillerman's skill and the potential of his characters.Because this book relies so much on past character development to establish its story, it would be a major mistake to make this the first book you read in the series. If you start with this book, the big mystery will be finding out who all of the people are and why the story involves them. I think this is one of those series where you really should start at the beginning and work on from there. This story is told from the perspective of several different characters, none of whom know everything that is going on. As the reader, you are privy to more of their thoughts and knowledge than any of them have which helps you anticipate what will happen next. Yet, until near the end, the ultimate meanings of the book's title will be hidden from you. It's a nice job of misdirection and a gradual, tasty unpeeling of the story grape. Neither Jim Chee nor Joe Leaphorn are the center of this story, although they play major roles. This is Bernie Manuelito's story although she doesn't appear in the book's opening. She has left some of her frustrations with Jim Chee and the Navajo Tribal Police to join the U.S. Customs Border Patrol near the border of Arizona and New Mexico. This takes her 200 miles from the reservation, and she's lonely despite making friends there. She alternates pining for Jim and being annoyed by his seeming aloofness in letters. He misses her desperately, but cannot bring himself to do anything about it. Bernie finds her new job emotionally and physically challenging because it involves both stopping illegal immigrants who may be in trouble after being abandoned by the coyote guides who lead them and dangerous drug smugglers who will stop at nothing to get their valuable, illegal cargoes through. In the background to the story are a mysterious investigation of misappropriation of billions in royalties due to Tribal Trust Funds from oil and gas sales, an unexplained death which the FBI hushes up, a Washington power broker who desperately wants the war on drugs to continue, former CIA agents and operatives, blackmail, a missing mistress, an exotic game ranch, an investigative reporter, and unexplained construction in the middle of nowhere. The book's only flaw is that the villain is portrayed in terms that are a little too extreme to be credible. He's more like a James Bond foe than a Tony Hillerman criminal. The overall theme of this book is about how our misperceptions of what is going on are likely to lead us astray. These misperceptions may be based on differences in language and culture, knowing only parts of the facts, having facts be withheld from us, or by assuming what others tell us is true when it is not. Mr. Hillerman does a masterful job of portraying all of these problems, and showing that it is important that we act on our desire to know more . . . rather than being satisfied with what appears to be going on at the surface. Better solutions are at hand, if only we grasp them. After you finish this fine book, I suggest that you think about where you may be misperceiving the potential around you. How can you test the accuracy and completeness of those perceptions where it's important? Donald Mitchell
Co-author of The 2,000 Percent Solution, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise and The Ultimate Competitive Advantage
Rating: 
Summary: OK, but not up to his previous titles.
Review: This is really a light weight mystery romance. It continues the story line of Hillerman's charactors which fans will want to read but really stretches to come up with a plausible plot. It doesn't have the depth you usually find in his books.
Rating:
Summary: Budge C. de Baca saves the day!
Review: I hadn't been expecting to hear from Tony Hillerman again so soon. It hasn't been that long since THE WAILING WIND.
This one is a very rapid read, with much of the action happening away from the Navajo reservation (Always a bad move, Tony). The plot centers around the murder of a retired CIA operative who's investigating the theft of billions of dollars in Indian oil, gas, coal, and timber royalties for a United States senator.
Bernie Manuelito has taken a job with the border patrol to get away from Jim Chee, her pushy boss, when she stumbles across a suspicious construction project in the middle of the desert. Unknowingly, she has become embroiled in a smuggling operation and her picture is being spread around by Mexican drug traffickers as a DEA agent to be on the lookout for. Meanwhile, Chee is pining away for Bernie, trying to think of a reason to go get her and ask her to marry him. This is where Joe Leaphorn enters the picture. He gets out his maps and is able to tie the original murder scene to some abandoned oil and gas pipelines leading from Sonora, Mexico, to the site of the murder. The Sinister Pig of the title is a device used to clean the insides of the pipelines. Joe quickly grasps the possibilities.
Hillerman uses multiple viewpoints to help us follow the action. There's a billionaire drug smuggler, his former CIA pilot (the most interesting character in the book), and a corrupt border patrol supervisor and of course our friends Joe, Jim, and Bernie.
I'd be surprised if this book is over 70,000 words it reads so fast. I liked a couple of things about it, besides Chee and Leaphorn of course, two of the best characters in the mystery genre: the factual basis of the book, the royalty money which the Department of the Interior lost or stole and the great character, Budge C. de Baca, the billionaire's pilot, a romantic felon I haven't seen anywhere else. I also like Cowboy Dashee, a recurring character in the Leaphorn/Chee series, who is now working for the Bureau of Land Management. He and Chee add comic relief to what might otherwise be a pretty conventional mystery.
Rating:
Summary: OK, but far from Hillerman's best
Review: I love this series, but this entry is not Hillerman's best stuff. I'm not sure if he's running out of steam, or if the life stories of Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee don't allow much development at this point. The dense subplotting and evocative details about Navajo life, so evident in the best Leaphorn/Chee stories, are mostly missing here. Hillerman seems to have been motivated mainly by a desire to wrap up the Jim Chee/Bernie Manuelito relationship, which he does, but not in a particularly original way. If you are new to this series, try the books written in the 1980's to get a better sense of Hillerman's considerable talent; The Dark Wind is probably the best of the best.
Rating:
Summary: Thank you Mr. Hillerman.
Review: I can almost smell the dry red clay and see that beautiful blue sky as I read this book. This book is a quick read but has some interesting twists to it. I can close my eyes and remember traveling a small state highway along the Great Divide on my way to see the V.L.A. near Datil, NM. I had read only a couple of the Jim Chee/Leaphorn books when I visited Gallup, New Mexico in 92 and 93 but I almost expected to see one of the books' characters appear at the Giant Truck Stop coffee shop or one of the tiny diners we saw on Hwy 36. Jim seems to be taking a big step in this book so I will wait patiently for another of these charming suspensful novels and I hope my husband gets me this one on tape too. Thank you Tony Hillerman.
Rating:
Summary: Another Fine (If Too Brief) from Tony Hillerman
Review: "The Sinister Pig" (a term which has a couple of meanings in the book) is another fine addition to Tony Hillerman's Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee series. This one involves a somewhat more complex plot than most of the previous ones, and as for character development, Mr. Hillerman seems to take it for granted that the readers of this book have also read at least some of the others, and that therefore he does not need to go into too much detail as to the personalities of his characters. Having said that, though, I enjoyed the book very much, and my only real complaint is, as with "The Wailing Wind", it is, at about 230 pages, just too short. But it is always a rare treat to be reunited with our old friends from the Navajo Tribal Police, and as an added bonus this edition features a happy ending romantically for the ever-lovelorn Jim Chee. Here's hoping Mr. Hillerman keeps the Leaphorn/Chee series coming, and that he adds a hundred or so pages to his next tale.
Rating:
Summary: HEAVY ON SUSPENSE -- LIGHT ON MYSTERY
Review: Legendary lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and his protege, sergeant Jim Chee, have come a long way in the sixteen Hillerman books in which they have figured. The early books were traditional police procedurals set in the unique environment and society of the Navajo Reservation. The crimes that led to murder were relatively small in magnitude: stealing Indian artifacts, robbing a casino, or revenge. In recent Hillerman books, the crimes have grown in scope to encompass serial killing, international drug smuggling, and theft of billions of dollars worth of natural gas. Bigger is not necessarily better. The Sinister Pig seems closer to Ludlum that to early Hillerman. A CIA expert on middle eastern oil pipeline technology is murdered while on a freelance investigation for a US Senator in the Four Corners area. Both Chee and the local FBI agent are quickly frozen out of the investigation by FBI headquarters. Chee continues to probe for information with help from the retired Leaphorn, "Cowboy" Dashee (now a BLM law enforcement officer), and Bernie Manuelito who has joined the US Customs Border Patrol. As in Wailing Wind, Bernie is the pivotal character in the story. Through her eyes Hillerman shows the reader how the US Government goes about trying to interdict illegal immigration and drug trafficking on the border with Mexico. It is not pretty. Chee is as inept as ever in dealing with his romantic interest in Bernie. While there were genuine obstacles to overcome in Chee's earlier love affairs, his inability to make his true feelings known to Ms Manuelito seems merely callow. We know who the villain of the piece is almost from the outset. He not only has the CIA agent killed, but arranges to have a young congrssional aide he has impregnated vanish. Lacking the whodunit element, the reader has only suspense to fuel his interest. Hillerman's descriptive skill is as sharp as ever and his ear for dialogue as true. Leaphorn is still Leaphorn. Should we ask for anything more?
Rating:
Summary: Good, but not the best Hillerman
Review: "The Sinister Pig" is another in Hillerman's long-running series of mystery novels centering upon the now retired, but hardly inactive, Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Sergeant Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police. This time the plot is in part inspired by the continuing scandal over the mismanagement - embezzlement and outright theft may be closer to the point - of funds due to Southwest Indian tribes for oil, gas, and coal taken from their reservations under Federal auspices. An investigator sent by a powerful Washington, DC, senator to nose around turns up dead with a bullet in his back. It is Jim Chee's case - or at least as much of the case as the FBI will let him handle - but it is immediately clear that somebody with high connections back in Washington wants the investigation squelched. Meanwhile, Jim Chee has something else on his mind. Bernadette Manuelito, formerly an officer in the Navajo Tribal Police, has taken a new job with the Border Patrol, 200 miles away, just when Chee was working up his resolve to make his personal interest clear to her. And now Bernie has stumbled on some mysterious goings-on along the Mexican border that might tie in to the unsolved murder back home. Hillerman departs somewhat from his usual format by writing several chapters from outside the viewpoint of Leaphorn and Chee (and Bernie Manuelito). Unlike in most Hillerman novels, we very quickly learn who the bad guys are, although a mystery remains until the final chapters as to exactly what they are doing. In general Hillerman's villains are not especially villainous, their motivations often arising from quite ordinary circumstances that lead them into crimes they never intended. But in "The Sinister Pig" the chief villain is as close to plain evil as Hillerman is ever likely to get. One disappointment: an element which usually sets Hillerman's mystery novels apart from all others is their exploration of the culture and religion of the Navajos and their Indian neighbors, this being integral to the book plot and often crucial to the solution of the mystery at hand. In the present novel we see almost nothing of this, except for some peripheral matters that only touch upon Jim Chee himself. Washington powerbrokers are a less engaging group than the people of the Big Rez. "The Sinister Pig" is not the best of Hillerman, to be sure, and it might be argued that it works primarily as simply being part of a continuing series about characters to whom we have come to feel close over the years. But a Hillerman book that is not amongst his best work is still a good mystery. And readers who count Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee as literary friends will want to find what has now happened in their personal lives. Hillerman's Navajo novels have continuing background stories that develop from novel to novel over time. Therefore, readers new to Hillerman would be well advised to begin not with this latest novel but back at the beginning of the series, getting to know the characters as their lives evolve. There's plenty of good reading to be had along the way.
Rating:
Summary: Off the reservation
Review: This is one of Tony Hillerman's weakest mysteries, but it's worth reading for a plot twist that will make it interesting for long-term Hillerman fans.
I suggest, as others have, that you first read several of the earlier books in the series to get to know Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, the Navajo detectives who surely deserve a place in the hall of fame for fictional detectives. You won't be able to appreciate fully this book without being familiar with the back story.
Contrary to Hillerman's usual practice, most of the action in this book takes place off the Navajo reservation, way down in the New Mexico bootheel near the Mexican border. Hillerman's usual weaving of Indian culture into his mysteries is mostly absent. Hillerman also preaches in this novel, a bit unusual for him. He argues against the US war on drugs as futile and harmful and he exposes the theft of billions of dollars from Indian tribes by fraud in the payment of royalties on oil and gas revenues.
Smallchief
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