The Sinister Pig

By Tony Hillerman

Hot on the heels of his huge bestseller, The Wailing Wind, Tony Hillerman brings back Chee and Leaphorn in a puzzling new mystery

The body of a well-dressed fellow, all identification missing, is found hidden under the brush on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation. The local FBI takes over from the Navajo Police Sergeant Jim Chee, and quickly has the case snatched all the way to Washington. Washington proves uncooperative and the case is deadended. When Joe Leaphorn, the “legendary lieutenant” of Hillerman’s Navajo Tribal Police discovers that Washington officials hid the body’s identity, lines surprisingly connect to the case he’s working on at exotic game ranch. A photograph she sends him tells Chee she is facing a danger he doesn’t understand.

Hillerman produces a galaxy of unusual characters in this compelling novel that is sure to confound readers until the very last page.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Oct 13, 2009
• ISBN: 9780061794766

Tony Hillerman

TONY HILLERMAN served as president of the Mystery Writers of America and received the Edgar and Grand Master Awards. His other honors include the Center for the American Indian’s Ambassador Award, the Spur Award for Best Western Novel, and the Navajo Tribal Council Special Friend of the Dineh Award. A native of Oklahoma, Tony Hillerman lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico, until his death in 2008.

Reviews for The Sinister Pig

[sail7 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One of the better in the Leaphorn/Chee series. Like Hunting Badger, the seed of the idea behind the book is contemporary happenings -- Mineral/Oil Royalties due the tribes, oil, drugs. Hillerman takes the action to the AZ-Mexico border.

[ffortsa · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is an oddity for Hillerman. The story starts in Washington, with people we do not know, ends up near the Mexican border, and is more violent than other Leaphorn/Chee books. Not very violent, but just more. I found it an uncomfortable read, borrowing too much from the headlines and maybe things Hillerman is not so familiar with.

[musicmom41 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was our car book for the trip North and we finished in the two evenings after we got to Vallejo. I love not having cable TV up here—we read or listen to books for entertainment. This one had both Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn along with Bernie Manuelito. Hillerman obviously had a low opinion of some government officials and corrupt politicians. It was a lot of fun and intriguing.

[kimreadthis · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I did not exactly love or hate this book. It was just okay. This was the first Hillerman I have read. The Native American aspects were interesting, but there was a bit too much attention paid to geography for my liking. I think reading a book from the middle of the series may not have been the best method, since a history of the two main characters was constantly hinted at, but never fully explained in this novel.

[amacmillen_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Leaphorn and Chee team up to solve a mystery about drugs and corrupt Washington bureaucrats that involves smuggling of drugs through gas pipe lines under the Mexican/US border. Chee saves his girlfriend, Bernadette (Bernie) Manuelito, from the Washington drug lord and and solves the case.

[tjsjohanna_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Finally! Jim has quit being obtuse and might actually have a healthy relationship with someone who he can make a real life with! There wasn't much of a mystery to this one, but certainly the premise of smuggling drugs was intriguing.

[mrslee_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is not my favorite Hillerman book, seemed to have a bit of a rant about the "drug war" and all. However, it was a concise little story, not so much a mystery as a way to forward events in the life of Jim Chee. I enjoyed the read, even if I didn't feel it was one of his best mysteries.

[stephenhughes_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Another good yarn from Hillerman. A good detective tale, but with a less explosive finale than usual, and with more new information about pipe technology than about Navajo culture.

[essfair · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Hillerman pulls in corrupt government and a corrupt millionaire from the East and sends Bernie off to become a Border Patrol. The dead body that starts the investigation is found on Navajo Tribal land but most of the action takes place near the Mexican border. Joe and Chee work together to solve this mystery and save Bernie’s life. Not one of Hillerman’s best—the ending is weak and Bernie is really saved by one of the villains having a change of heart.

[babydraco · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Got this one for my birthday. There's something off about it, but I couldn't figure out what. I know the book feels oddly short. But I did giggle when I realized that Leaphorn and Chee are so similar to Sam Vimes and Captain Carrot of the Discworld. Like the Navajo version, which means Leaphorn is not quite like Vimes (although neither one of them is supposed to drink). But as I read Chee's sometime girlfriend Officer Manuelito describing him to her friend it sounded an awful lot like Angua describing Carrot."Honey, time to get smart. That man hurt your feelings. But he really likes you.""Oh yeah," Bernie said. "He also likes stray cats and retarded kids and..."I enjoyed Chee's interactions with his Hopi colleague too. And Officer Manuelito fits most of the famous requirements for a good female character-she even basically rescues herself from the people who try to kidnap her. But then she sort of agrees to give up being a cop and marry Chee. It's not that I don't want them to get married, I do, but I wanted her to stay a cop. If she ceases to be one, then one day she "won't understand him" and the author will have to break them up or something. Officer Manuelito is part of the Border Patrol and it's interesting to see the Navajo attitude toward illegal imigration as opposed to the "white person's".

[eduscapes · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I keep reading these books because I enjoy the characters. However, the stories are pretty predictable.

[egyarnetsky · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Billions in oil and gas royalties earmarked for the native American nations are missing and a federal agent investigating the case is killed in cold blood on the Navajo reservation. Navajo Police Sergeant Jim Chee tries to investigate the murder, but is strangely stifled by the FBI. Meanwhile Chee’s former cohort Bernie Manualito, now with the Border Patrol, stumbles across an unusual ranch that her boss wants left well enough alone.As these seemingly disparate cases connect tighter to each other and to Washington, Chee and Manualito find that the oil, gas and royalty monies are not the only things flowing through the region.This book, the 16th in the series, is less steeped in Navajo culture than Hillerman's previous works and is not quite as enjoyable as others in the series. Even so, the Western landscape is lushly described and becomes an integral character in this novel.