Hunting Badger

Rating:
Summary: A Good Read In Great Need Of Editing
Review: 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 [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: More of the great combo of Leaphorn and Chee
Review: Hunting Badger, set in the Four Corners region of the US (junction of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah, which come together at four perfect 90-degree angles) which will be familiar to Hillerman's devoted readers, focuses on the violent ripoff of a casino on the Ute reservation. The wonderful character list includes the usual reservation cops, and a lady interest for both Leaphorn (whose beloved wife has died) and Chee (who took fer-frikkin'-ever to get over Janet Pete, his first love). But just as strong a character is the land itself, always a forceful and important presence in TH's wonderful books. There's even mining geology information in Hunting Badger. What you get in a good Tony Hillerman book is more than a story with memorable characters told in economical prose; you also get vivid mental pictures of the bleak beauty of the Southwest, insightful glimpses of Navajo culture, geology and geography lessons, and spiritual shaman lore.
For character development and follow-through, don't read this first; go back at the very beginning of this Leaphorn/Chee series and start with the first one. But if you just want a good book to read on the plane and this is the one that's available in the airport bookstore, then go ahead and buy it. You won't regret it.

Rating:
Summary: Just what You would expect from Chee and Leaphorn
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: 'Hunting Badger'--Hillerman in top form!
Review: In "Hunting Badger," Tony Hillerman's continuation of the Lt. Joe Leaphorn
and Jim Chee mystery, the author once more captures, with vivid description,
riveting detail, exciting plot, and superb characterization, life on and about the
Navajo reservation.

Leaphorn and Jim Chee team up once again to solve a crime in the Four Corners
canyons. Hillerman takes a real-life crime (In 1998 three "survivalists" steal a truck,
murder a policeman, and then disappear. The FBI and other law organizations fail
in their investigations.) and adapts it to his own fictional form. He does so,
upholding once more his reputation as one of the most exciting writers around. His
"police procedural" is in a unque--and original setting--in the middle of the Navajo
nation.

"Hunting Badger" takes us in and around and through the ins and outs of that area
before finally climaxing in triumph for Leaphorn and Chee, not to mention
Hillerman. This is perhaps his most suspenseful book in some time. It's good to
read Hillerman when he's in top form and this edition fully lives up to his
reputation! ([e-mail])

Rating:
Summary: Hillerman's Characters and Plot Evolve in Interesting Ways
Review: This book has many appealing features. The usual reservation context is there, built up from a mixture of magic, myth, vistas, and cultural conflicts. My favorite characters in the series all have pretty good sized roles, including Joe Leaphorn, Jim Chee, Cowboy Dashee, and Bernie Manuelito. The mystery has lots of misdirection, but not so much that you can't separate the red herrings from the real clues. The context between the reservation and nonreservation worlds becomes richer. And finally, the characters develop new depth and expand their relationships in significant ways. The plot also has some twists in it that are different from other Hillerman novels.

I particularly like balance in my novels, and this one is the most balanced I remember in the series. Almost all of the elements that could be touched on are, and they add to the enjoyment of the story and the reader's connection to the characters.

The book opens with a violent crime in which three criminals working in close coordination hijack the Ute Casino's winnings. One security officer is killed, and another is seriously wounded. Soon, the FBI's theory is that the crooks are long gone, due to the disappearance of a small plane.

Joe Leaphorn's retired, and Jim Chee's on vacation. Yet, soon they are at the point in tracking down the criminals. As usual, their superior knowledge and openmindedness about what they hear allow them to draw conclusions that occur to no one else.

Where else are those who should know the most ignored? Find those people and listen to them. You may well have a Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee available to help you.

Anyone who is a Tony Hillerman fan will have lots of fun with this one!

Rating:
Summary: Another Hit From Hillerman
Review: 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.