The Sinister Pig

Starred review from April 14, 2003
Bestseller Hillerman's 16th Chee/ Leaphorn adventure offers deeper intrigue and a tighter plot than his previous entry, The Wailing Wind
(2002), in this enduring series. When the body of an undercover agent, who's been looking for clues to the whereabouts of billions of dollars missing from the Tribal Trust Funds, turns up on reservation property near Four Corners, Navajo cop Sgt. Jim Chee and Cowboy Dashee, a Hopi with the Federal Bureau of Land Management, investigate. But the book's real star is officer Bernadette "Bernie" Manuelito, Chee's erstwhile romantic interest, now working in the New Mexico boot heel for the U.S. Border Patrol. The miles have only strengthened her feelings for Chee—and vice versa. A routine patrol puts Bernie on the trail of an operation involving some old oil pipelines that connects to the Four Corners murder. Meanwhile, Joe Leaphorn is checking into the same murder from another direction. The three lines converge on a conspiracy of drugs, greed and power, and those who most profit, including the "sinister pig" of the title, will stop at nothing to keep it a secret. With his usual up-front approach to issues concerning Native Americans such as endlessly overlapping jurisdictions, Hillerman delivers a masterful tale that both entertains and educates. (May 6)Forecast:PBS has announced a second
Mystery! series based on a Hillerman work,
The Thief of Time, the breakout book that made him a bestseller in 1988. His memoir,
Seldom Disappointed (2001), won an Agatha Award. And the 77-year-old author recently signed a new two-book contract. Less flashy than some newer names in the field, Hillerman shows no sign of faltering in popularity.

Starred review from May 1, 2003
A barren desert landscape is quickly filled with Navajo tribal police, customs patrol officers, and the FBI when a dumped, unidentifiable body is discovered on the Navajo Reservation. The gathering of experts gives Hillerman the chance to bring back both Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, whom he retired but can't bear to live without, and Officer Bernie Manuelito, now reassigned to the customs patrol and still ambivalent about her on-again, off-again romance with Sergeant Jim Chee. So it's old-home week at Four Corners, as Chee, Leaphorn, and Manuelito bring their separate skills and peccadilloes to a mystery that branches far, far off from the body in the desert. Chee and Leaphorn find that the body is connected to the investigation of an ongoing scheme to bilk the Tribal Trust Fund of billions of dollars of royalties from use of the Four Corners oil pipeline. Manuelito finds a connection with the smuggling of cocaine and illegals from Mexico. They all discover that the FBI and others very much want to halt their investigations. Events turn treacherous when Manuelito, identified by the good-luck pin she wears on her lapel, is stalked by one very scary drug-running villain. As always with Hillerman, an intricate pattern of ingenious detective work, comic romance, tribal custom, and desert atmosphere provide multifaceted reading pleasure. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)

December 1, 2003
Adult/High School-Hillerman masterfully juggles the pieces of a puzzle involving billions of dollars in missing oil royalties owed to Native Americans; the drug war; and a badly fragmented bureaucracy. When a stranger is found murdered on Navajo land, Sergeant Jim Chee of the Tribal Police steps in, but before long the investigation is joined-and muddied-by a plethora of government agencies including the FBI, the U.S. Customs Service, and the Bureau of Land Management, and by Navajo, Hopi, and Apache tribal viewpoints. Help comes from two old friends, the retired Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and the former Navajo tribal policewoman Bernadette Manuelito, who escaped a stalled relationship with Chee to join the U.S. Border Patrol. The victim had been looking into possible fraud using old oil pipelines (hence "sinister pig," a piece of switching equipment). Meanwhile, another kind of sinister pig, the blue-blooded Rawley Winsor, appears at a private ranch in the area, and through his deep involvement in drug trafficking, Hillerman presents a trenchant perspective on the drug war. Winsor's mistress and his driver, two more colorful characters, add an interesting subplot, as do the prickly Bernie and the bashful Chee, when their attraction is reawakened. The story might sound complicated, but the author breezes through, making it look easy. This outing ventures beyond the Navajo landscape that Hillerman's fans expect, but they-and general readers-should enjoy the broader geographical and social canvas just as well, in this tale of ordinary people unraveling knots of fraud and skulduggery.-Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

Copyright 2003 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2003
As the characters of Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn become more fully fleshed out with each succeeding book, the plots of Hillerman's popular mysteries get thinner and thinner. This time 'round, the action moves out of Navajo land south to New Mexico's boot heel along the border with Mexico. While searching for illegal immigrants, Bernadette Manuelito, who quit the Navajo Tribal Police to join the Border Patrol, stumbles upon some mysterious activities around a windmill construction site on a game ranch. The photos that she takes and sends to her ex-boss, Jim Chee, may be linked to a murder he is investigating and may throw Bernadette into further danger. Unfortunately, the mystery is not very interesting: there is a ton of dry details about pipelines and very little Navajo lore to add magic to the story, and the villain is a standard cardboard figure. Still, fans of the series will be happy to learn that Chee's frustrated love life may finally be resolved. Buy for demand. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/03.]-Wilda Williams, "Library Journal"

Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.