Customer Reviews

Hunting Badger

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(37)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Those who love the Tony Hillerman books should really appreciate Hunting Badger. While it is lighter on some of the aspects of Navajo culture that we have come to expect in these books, the strong re-emergence of Joe Leaphorn's character is a welcome surprise. Even in retirement he is giving Sgt. Chee fits. And the introduction of a new love interest for Chee offers numerous possibilities for future stories.

What makes Hillerman's books work are these characters and their struggle to live in the modern world and yet not forsake that of their ancestors. This dynamic, which plays a significant part in each of his novels, is what makes these tales something more than average who-done-its. In fact, it is seldom the solving of the crime that is the main focus, but how it is solved. Just as the workings of Sherlock Holme's mind is central to Conan Doyle's stories, the workings of Leaphorn's mind (and the influence of Navajo culture and tradition) play a big part in Hillerman's stories. In this one, the study of Navajo myths and legends plays a big part in cracking the case.

I couldn't subsist on a steady diet of Hillerman, but I would hate not to have a new Leaphorn/Chee story each year or so to help me slow down the pace of my life and see, for a few hours, with a different perspective. Very pleasant reading.

Having traveled the Four Corners area a lot the past few years, as I read this book, I could envision all the locations that Hillerman cites in Hunting Badger - Tuba City, Chinle, Window Rock, Farmington, etc. I found myself enchanted and drawn away, driving down those dusty washboard reservation roads, imagining that I was riding along with Chee and Leaphorn as they chased down George Ironhand, Buddy Baker, and Everett Jorie.

Hillerman's vast knowledge and familiarity with the geographical terrain and the Navajo traditions that are woven into his novels are a proven recipe for success. Though Leaphorn is still adjusting to his life as a retired Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant, his sharp mind and investigative skills have not dulled. In Hunting Badger, Hillerman continues Sergeant Jim Chee's progression as a Navajo Shaman, in juxtaposition with his occupation as a police officer, which Chee's grandfather reluctanctly accepts as the way of this present world. Chee also moves slightly out of Leaphorn's shadow, taking on a less subservient role as the retired Leaphorn gives Chee more credit for his ability as an investigator.

This novel is well-written from start to finish - several times I found myself following the wrong trail as I tried to figure out whodunit and why, only to be brought back on track by Chee and Leaphorn. Made me want to return to the Four Corners area once more, to look at the beautiful terrain as Chee and Leaphorn would see it.

Peace Out.

For me, the '5-star' book of Hillerman's canon is 'A Thief of Time,' which really had a gripping, suprising mystery, good villians, and a good dose of the Navajo culture/geography descriptions that set his books apart.

'Hunting Badger' is, IMHO, a minor work in the pantheon, but extremely readable and enjoyable. It's good to see that as they grow older and more mature, Chee and Leaphorn are finally beginning to develop a relationship that transcends the mentor/acolyte status they've always had and becomes--dare we say it--friendship? Also, it's a relief to see that Chee is finally ditching Janet Pete and opening his mind to a relationship "closer to home," while Leaphorn is finally acknowledging that there is a life after his beloved Emma. These are the real things that are interesting about the story, plot strands that all radiate from the wisdom of a central metaphor, the death of a central Navajo figure in Chee's life.

The mystery itself is pretty routine, and the plot, always secondary in a Hillerman novel to the characters, culture, and landscape, is less important than ever. What ultimately makes this rewarding for long-time fans of the series is the satisfying direction Hillerman has established for future novels.

I've read all of Hillerman's series showcasing Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. I've not been disappointed in any of the stories, including the latest.

Hillerman's characters are now so familiar to me that I fall right into their 'Navajo Time' rhythm and feel at home in their part of the world.

To me, the plots/crimes are almost secondary to learning about the wise Leaphorn and the hungry for knowledge Chee.

I'll continue to read Hillerman for as long as he writes. With characters like these, he will never run out of good plot lines.

P.S. I like the new love interest in Chee's life. Janet Peete was never right for him....

Enjoy!

Tony Hillerman has written another engaging Chee/Leaphorn mystery, and although it's not my favorite work of the series, Hunting Badger is an excellent read. As far as contemporary mystery writing is concerned Hillerman is one of the best. The continuing evolution of his main characters is as interesting as the plot. With each book we get to know new sides of Jim Chee and the Legendary Lieutenant Leaphorn who had always been somewhat aloof until his wife's death and his retirement. It's nice to see him tread new ground after all these years. As always Hillerman is extremely adept at evoking the beautiful landscape of the Four Corners region, which regular readers have come to know and love. Within the mystery genre you're not likely to find a better sustained series, and Hunting Badger, if not the best in the series, nicely continues the tradition.

I started reading Tony Hillerman 2 years ago because of a review I read here at Amazon.com. "Fallen Man" was highly praised for painting vivid word pictures of the Four Corners countryside. When I started I had never heard of the Navajo Tribal Police and did not know an area call "four corners" existed outside of the center intersection of Bowling Green, OH. What a delightful surprise the Hillerman book turned out to be and continues to be. In these days of fast action and superficial characters and violence for violence sake, The Chee and Leaphorn stories are a welcome change. Why? The pictures of the Arizona/New Mexico countryside that Hillerman enables my imagination to conjure up are mind boggling. Having never been to the area I could only picture in my head the sunsets over the mountains, the cold snow swirling across the lonely roads, the storms raising across the plains. These pictures forced me to visit the area last summer - and I was not disappointed. The Indian traditions are deeply related in detail. Why the Navajos live like they do, act like they act and their views on the rest of us non-indians were truly amazing revelations. Finally the relationship of Chee and Leaphorn of the Navojo Tribal Police. After reading most of the books I feel like Chee is a brother or classmate and Leaphorn is my older wise uncle. Some why am I telling you all this in a review of this book? Because Hillerman continues the process in Hunting Badger. Nothing flashy, no pulse stopping ending, just a story about Chee and Leaphorn and Chee's perhaps new love interest - Sgt Manuelito and some criminals set in one of the most beautiful parts of the United States. More traditions, more scenery and more insight into the two main characters. Another good NTP yarn.

I have read all of Hillerman's novels set in the Four Corners area. Must concur with other reviewers that (a) this story wasn't particularly strong, but (b) it was quite enjoyable, esp. if the reader already knows the characters. In most of Tony's other books, the villain and the weather play more of a role, so I was disappointed by the lack of importance given to them this time.

But the proofreading & editing of this book were Godawful. I would strongly suggest that serious readers avoid first editions of ANYTHING from HarperCollins. They left it all to the spell-checker, which can't be trusted to replace "censor" with the intended "sensor," or to correct punctuation typos. Next time I'm waiting for paperback; hopefully it will be less buggy.

Hillerman has written another great book. I read it in just a couple of sittings and it was hard to put down. Chee is back where he belongs as a sargeant and Leaphorn is, well, Leaphorn. It seemed a well thought out story with Hillerman's usual great writing. Some plot twists but I did get the "right" bad guy before the end of the story. He is building the relationships in the book, Chee and Bernie and Joe and Louisa. To me, this is a good thing. Note to Tony, let them both be happy with someone. Chee has had enough girl friends and it has been too long for Leaphorn since he lost his wife. My opinion is that this book deserves 5 stars. Read it.

Hunting Badger is another of Hillerman's novelistic odes to Indian Country, this time praising the eighty-five million acres known as Four Corners or the Big Empty. The cast of characters is familiar: the Legendary Lieutenant (Joe Leaphorn), the Woman Professor (Louisa Bourebonette), the Former Acting Lieutenant (Jim Chee), and What a Woman (NTP officer Bernadette Manuelito). As always, the characterizations are sharp and consistent, and the story line weaves through endless canyons of imagination before giving away the identity of the actual villain one-half to two-thirds of the way through.

Like other Hillerman fans, I love these characters, their ever-present "wry" faces, the lightening-bolt transitions from scene to scene, the enriched atmosphere of painted sky- and landscapes and, most of all, the heightened anticipation as one closes in on the plot resolution (which here is not up to the standards set in previous Hillerman works such as People of Darkness, The Dark Wind and A Thief of Time, but definitely does increase your pulse rate and reading speed as the light at the end of the tunnel - a muzzle flash, in this case - intensifies.

But a number of things about this work bothered me. The most obvious: the atrocious editing. The reader is constantly required to line edit: see, e.g., p. 18, line 2: "... Leaphorn had starting thinking about ..."; p. 19, line 3: a "wasn't" that should likely be a "didn't"; and you can find plenty more at pp 20, 35, 49, 64 ("It you see ..." rather than "If you see ..."), 66 (Chee referred to as "Cree"), 90, 95 ("... he'd hadn't heard it)."), 184-85 ("... he was hunting tered around out of the trash can, ..."), 189 ("He looked a Chee to see ..."), 192 and 244.

The overall effect of the foregoing examples is admittedly de minimis. But the going gets worse. At p. 124, line 5, we have Special Agent Cabot's dialogue tagged as "Lodge said." Then at p. 186 the page starts out with part of the paragraph missing entirely: "reacted, Leaphorn thought. And he noticed ..." What that refers to, I haven't the slightest. And back at p. 85 we have Leaphorn smelling "... the outdoor scents of hay, horse manure, sage and dry-country summer invading through the open window", whereas the only prior reference to the window was at p. 83, lines 10-12, where Leaphorn was putting "... his forehead against the glass, shaded his eyes and looked into what seemed to be a bedroom ..." My margin note: What open window? A similar non sequitur occurs at p. 248, lines 9-10, where we discover for the first time that potential villain Jorie is "... a lawyer and admitted to the Utah bar ..." My margin note: Where did that come from?

It also bothered me that at p. 192, lines 19-26, "Leaphorn looked very interested ..." when he hears essentially the same information (a description of the coal digs where Badger might be holed up) that he's already heard from Chee on p. 165 at lines 5-8. A similar instance of Chee and Leaphorn forgetting they've already discussed something occurs at p. 240, lines 12-18, where there is a repeat of their previous conversation at p. 216, lines 1-4.

The bottom line here is that when I buy a first edition hardcover, I expect it to evidence some decent editing. Apparently Harper Collins doesn't share this opinion. Nowadays, speed is the creed and few publishing houses seem to spend time on essential details, perhaps because they're too busy distributing hype, counting beans and devising Internet wampum. It's like the biggest software company in the world, which leaves it to consumers to find all the flaws in its programs. I find myself asking: What ever happened to editors like Max Perkins? There's a photograph of Thomas Wolfe in A. Scott Berg's biography Max Perkins, Editor of Genius: Wolfe is standing over one of three voluminous crates of loose manuscript which, under Perkins' guidance, would eventually become Of Time and the River - a massive editing job which occupied Perkins for over two years. Today it appears that no one is willing to spend even two hours to tidy up a gifted writer's manuscript.

All in all, Hunting Badger is a very good read. I only wish Mr. Hillerman would change publishers and get the editing his writing deserves. Some of us might even volunteer to do it in exchange for a sneak preview of what Leaphorn, Chee, Largo, Cowboy Dashee and the others will be doing in the twenty-first century. Do buy the book - but wait for the paperback version. Maybe by then the editors at Harper Collins will have read the hardback - and made some direly needed changes.

JT Borst-Fuerst JTB@EnglishOnline.ch

Like reviewer Billbowie (from Sac) below, I too was in the area of the 1998 FBI manhunt. I was actually in Cortez and missed the events that transpired by about 1/2 hour.

Mr. Hillerman's book is a seperate story in itself refrencing the '98 manhunt and events, but enter Jim Chee and Lt. (now civilian) Leaphorn. The book opened fast and set up events that would eventually lead to the climax, but I must say I was a bit disapointed with the quick resolution.

What make Hillerman's novels strong are the intricate chracter developments that carry over from novel to novel. You just can't get enough of Leaphorn's thinking outside conventional lines and Chee's attitude. What was missing from this novel was more of the Native American mythology/folklore that Hillerman is usually known for. Though not needed in this novel, it is generally a pleasure to read and learn about Native American spirituality and customs.

The only frustrating aspect of this book is the overly drawn out love lives of our two main characters. With each novel, there never seems to be any progression over Leaphorn's deceased wife, or Chee's ability to really go after what he secretly wants (Officer Bernie). There is some hinting in this book, but I'd like to see Mr. Hillerman tie up one of these lingering plotlines in his next book.

Otherwise, the book will keep you guessing and it is a real fun read.