The Sinister Pig (Leaphorn & Chee, #16)

Amazon.com Review 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 From Publishers Weekly 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. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

loaded With E-book Extras (not Available In The Print Edition), Including Tony Hillerman's Running Commentary On His Work And His Series Heroes Leaphorn And Chee; Plus A Special Profile Of The Navajo Nation.

the New York Times

tony Hillerman Was Just Waiting For Someone To Invent The Department Of Homeland Security. As If The Jurisdictional Power Struggles Among The F.b.i., The D.e.a., The Border Patrol, The Department Of Land Management And The Navajo Tribal Police Were Not Enough To Cripple Local Law Enforcement On The Indian Reservations Where Hillerman Sets His Novels, An Ã1⁄4ber-agency Like Homeland Security Comes Along To Create Total Confusion. Hillerman Orchestrates The Chaos Brilliantly In the Sinister Pig, Devising A Plot That Draws All These Interested Parties To A Lonely Dirt Road In The San Juan Basin In New Mexico (''the Very Heart Of America's Version Of The Persian Gulf''), Where An Undercover Agent Has Been Murdered While Investigating Possible Criminal Sabotage Of The Oil Pipelines. Sgt. Jim Chee Of The Navajo Police And His Retired Mentor, Joe Leaphorn, Are Quick To Pick Up On The Implications For A Federal Inquiry Into Some $40 Billion In Oil Revenues That Never Made It Into The Tribal Trust Fund. But The F.b.i. Elbows Them Off The Case, And It Is Left To A Rookie, Bernadette Manuelito, Working Border Patrol Near Mexico, To Follow The Cynical Scheme To Its Bedrock, Allowing Hillerman To Tie All Three Investigative Strands Together In An Extraordinary Display Of Sheer Plotting Craftsmanship. — marilyn Stasio

The victim, well dressed but stripped of identification, is found at the edge of the vast Jicarilla Apache natural gas field just inside the jurisdiction of the Navajo Tribal Police, facing Sergeant Jim Chee with a complex puzzle. Why did the Washington office of the FBI snatch custody of this case from its local agents, cover it with secrecy, and call it a hunting accident? What was the victim seeking among the maze of pipelines and pumping stations in America's largest gas field? Was he investigating the embezzlement of billions of dollars from the Indian Tribal royalty trust in the Department of the Interior? On a level nearer to Chee's heart, did the photographs Bernie Manuelito took on an exotic game ranch near the Mexican border reveal something connected with this crime? Did Bernie, once a member of Chee's squad but now a rookie Border Patrol Officer, put herself in terrible danger? The author leads his readers through another of his intricate plots to the solution of this crime, with a cast of vivid characters: a Washington political mogul and his more-or-less renegade pilot a customs official who bends the rules a Mexican smuggler with a conscience and, finally, "Legendary Lieutenant" Joe Leaphorn, now retired, who connects the lines on a dusty old map to find the answers -- and the Sinister Pig -- among the great scimitar-horned oryx grazing on the historic Tuttle Ranch The victim, well dressed but stripped of identification, is found at the edge of the vast Jicarilla Apache natural gas field just inside the jurisdiction of the Navajo Tribal Police, presenting Sergeant Jim Chee with a complex puzzle. Why did the Washington office of the FBI snatch custody of this case from its local agents, cover it with secrecy, and call it a hunting accident? What was the victim seeking among the maze of pipelines and pumping stations in America's largest gas field? Was he investigating the embezzlement of billions of dollars from the Indian Tribal royalty trust in the Department of the Interior? On a level nearer to Chee's heart, did photographs Bernie Manuelito had taken on an exotic game ranch near the Mexican border reveal something connected with this crime? Had Bernie, once a member of his squad but now a rookie Border Patrol Officer, put herself in terrible danger? Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn helps Chee connect the lines on a dusty old map to find the answers -- and the Sinister Pig -- among the great Scimitar-Horned Oryx grazing on the historic old Tuttle Ranch Sergeant Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police is troubled by the nameless corpse discovered just inside his jurisdiction, at the edge of the Jicarilla Apache natural gas field. More troubling still is the FBI's insistence that the Bureau take over the case, calling the unidentified victim's death a "hunting accident." But if a hunter were involved, Chee knows the prey was intentionally human. This belief is shared by the "Legendary Lieutenant" Joe Leaphorn, who once again is pulled out of retirement by the possibility of serious wrongs being committed against the Navajo nation by the Washington bureaucracy. Yet it is former policewoman Bernadette Manuelito, recently relocated to Customs Patrol at the U.S. -- Mexico border, who possibly holds the key to a fiendishly twisted conspiracy of greed, lies, and murder -- and whose only hope for survival now rests in the hands of friends too far away for comfort. Loaded with e-book extras (not available in the print edition), including Tony Hillerman's running commentary on his work and his series heroes Leaphorn and Chee; plus a special profile of the Navajo nation.When Navajo Tribal Police Sergeant Jim Chee finds the victim -- stripped of an identity -- he calls on a Washington mogul, a crooked customs official, a Mexican smuggler, and the legendary Joe Leaphorn to solve the puzzle: why did the FBI cover up the case? Are billions of embezzled dollars at stake?