Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
Summary:
Tony Hillerman is a national treasure, having achieved critical acclaim, chart-topping popularity, and a sterling reputation as an ambassador between whites and Indians. Fortunately, he's also still a marvelous writer, much imitated but never equaled. The Sinister Pig--his 16th novel to feature Navajo cops Joe Leaphorn and/or Jim Chee--isn't his best book, but it's still a pleasure from the first page to the last. Its plot is almost too complex to summarize, involving the mysterious shooting of an ex-CIA agent, financial shenanigans around oil-and-gas royalties, disappearing congressional interns, exotic pipeline technology, and the cross-border trade in both drugs and illegal aliens.
Officer Bernadette Manuelito has left the Navajo Tribal Police for the U.S. Customs Service, patrolling the barren borderlands of southern New Mexico. There, her curiosity and smarts land her in a growing peril that provides much of the book's suspense--and invokes the protective instincts of Sergeant Chee, who still hasn't quite been able to tell her how he feels about her. It's impossible not to care about Hillerman's exquisitely drawn repertory characters, nor to overlook the pleasures of his beautifully crafted and relaxed-seeming prose. In the midst of these virtues are a few warts: several sections are a little flat or awkward, and the villainous plutocrat behind it all is short on plausibility (though lots of fun to hate). But even a lesser Hillerman is still a richer, more satisfying read than most authors' top stuff. --Nicholas H. Allison
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Rating:
Not His Best Work
Customer Rating:
I own and have enjoyed all Hillerman's previous books, but this one doesn't quite hit the mark. Sorry, Tony. I can only give it 3 stars.
Pretty good, but nothing special
Customer Rating:
Among the various detective novelists writing today, Tony Hillerman occupies a pretty unique position. His series of detective novels, following first the adventures of two different characters, Lt. Joe Leaphorn and Sgt. Jim Chee, in separate books. Later, Hillerman combined the two characters, and has been chronicling their combined adventures for a good long time now. He's added supporting characters, including a series of girlfriends for Chee, a wife who died and then a lady friend for Leaphorn, and colleagues like the inimitable Cowboy Dashee, who's appeared in the background of several of the books.
This latest entry in the series isn't the strongest, but it is interesting. Someone's been killed on the Reservation, and before anyone can investigate, the FBI shows up and closes down the investigation, announcing the improbably verdict of "hunting accident". Chee doesn't buy the explanation, and both he and Leaphorn take to investigating on their own. Meanwhile, a former colleague of theirs, Bernadette Manuelito, has gone to work for the Border Patrol. While there, she discovers things which seem to link into the investigation on the Reservation that Chee and Leaphorn are running.
I enjoyed this book well enough. It's not Hillerman's best, but it's a good story and reasonably well done.
A Twisting Tale
Customer Rating:
Hillerman again skillfully leads his readers through convoluted mysteries while painting verbal pictures of the American West. He switches tantalizingly between the reader's favorite characters, Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, portraying the Navajo lifestyle as he leads us through the passages of a complex maze of clues. Just as we finally discover the name of the story's villain(s), we discover to our dismay that another journey with this authorhas ended.
Don't Start with This One!
Customer Rating:
I really love Hillerman's books. He is one of my favorite authors. That said, everyone lets a stinker once in a while, and this is Hillermans. My first impression was that Hillerman had gotten so old and feeble that he couldn't write any more. This impression was later corrected, he's as good as ever. So, if you like Hillerman, don't expect much from this one. If you have not read Hillerman, don't start here - please. He is a very good author and all of this other books are far superior to this one.
Hillerman is amazing.
Customer Rating:
This is the first book I read of Hillerman's and I loved it. I have started at the beginning of this delightful series and Hillerman does not disappoint. Great read.
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