The Sinister Pig

The “Sinister Pig” title comes from the French phrase cochon sinistre or porc sinistre, for the boss pig in the sty that prevents other animals from taking a bite. And in human terms, it is a reference to the key villain in the story, Rawley Windsor. Rawley is already rich and powerful, with politicians and law enforcement people under his pay. But he is not yet content.

He wants to go for more wealth—clandestine cocaine-induced wealth—than he already has. So while backing the lobby to stop Congress from legalizing the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes—because it would threaten his profits from drug pushing—he is secretly setting up a system of using abandoned gas pipelines running from Mexico to New Mexico, USA, to transport cocaine disguised as pigs—devices normally used to clean out pipelines. And he very nearly gets away with this.

Except a number of actors realize the menace he posed, particularly his bodyguard and jet pilot Budge C. de Baca, not only to society but to their own lives. So at the end, Rawley the sinister pig gets the bullet he’d intended for an intelligent but innocent Border Patrol cop Bernadette (Bernie) Manuelito. Quite interesting, and written with a touch of humor.

March 18, 2015. Review initially written in 2011. Novel first published in 2003, this HarperTorch edition being published in 2004, ISBN 0-006-109878-7.