Hunting Badger

In 1998 three heavily armed "survivalists" came out of the Four Corners canyons in a stolen truck, murdered a policeman -- and eluded an epic manhunt. The crime and the bungled FBI investigation left behind a web of mysteries. The most puzzling of all: what crime were the men enroute to commit when Officer Dale Claxton stopped them -- and paid for his bravery with his life?

Tony Hillerman assigns these real-life puzzles to his fictional Navajo Tribal police officers -- Sergeant Jim Chee and Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn (retired). The time is now, and the memory of the mishandled manhunt of 1998 is still painfully fresh when three men stage a pre-dawn raid on the Ute Tribe's gambling casino, and then disappear in the maze of canyons on the Utah-Arizona border after killing a policeman. Together, Chee and Leaphorn discover an intriguing pattern connecting this crime with the exploits of a legendary Ute hero/bandit. Tightly plotted and beautifully written, Hunting Badger proves once again that no one tells a story like Tony Hillerman.

Performed by George Guidall