THE COLD DISH by Craig Johnson
Introducing Wyoming’s Sheriff Walt Longmire in this riveting novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Hell Is Empty and As the Crow Flies, the first in the Walt Longmire Mystery Series, the basis for LONGMIRE, the hit A&E original drama series
Fans of Ace Atkins, Nevada Barr and Robert B. Parker will love this outstanding first novel, in which New York Times bestselling author Craig Johnson introduces Sheriff Walt Longmire of Wyoming’s Absaroka County. Johnson draws on his deep attachment to the American West to produce a literary mystery of stunning authenticity, and full of memorable characters. After twenty-five years as sheriff of Absaroka County, Walt Longmire’s hopes of finishing out his tenure in peace are dashed when Cody Pritchard is found dead near the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. Two years earlier, Cody had been one of four high school boys given suspended sentences for raping a local Cheyenne girl. Somebody, it would seem, is seeking vengeance, and Longmire might be the only thing standing between the three remaining boys and a Sharps .45-70 rifle. With lifelong friend Henry Standing Bear, Deputy Victoria Moretti, and a cast of characters both tragic and humorous enough to fill in the vast emptiness of the high plains, Walt Longmire attempts to see that revenge, a dish best served cold, is never served at all.
MY REVIEW:
"The Cold Dish" of revenge is well-served in the first book of author Craig Johnson's "Walt Longmire Mystery" series. As the sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming, Walt Longmire has learned to keep his friends close, his enemies closer, and to keep a close eye on potentially unfriendly situations. A longtime lawman, Walt's law enforcement career actually began with his tour of duty in Vietnam. Also serving in Vietnam was Walt's lifelong friend, Henry Standing Bear, who now runs the local watering hole, The Red Pony. Walt and Henry go together like salt & pepper in a perfectly-seasoned recipe. Two strong individual characters, quite interesting on their own, but even better as a duo. The depth of their friendship is unspoken, but none-the-less keenly felt. That doesn't mean that they can't insult each other to infinity and beyond, which provides much of the laugh-out-loud humor in the book. Along with Walt and Henry, we meet a unique group of supporting characters like Victoria "Vic" Moretti, Walt's fast & foul-mouthed deputy. A former Philadelphia patrol cop from a long line of police officers, Vic moved to Wyoming along with her husband when he was transferred through his work as an engineer with a mining company. Vic, as loyal as she is loud in expressing her opinions, is also extremely competent, and in her own way, very caring. Rounding out the roster in the sheriff's office are Ruby, the capable and observant secretary/dispatcher; Ferg, the dutiful deputy; and Turk, more punk than policeman, and more attitude than ability. The setting itself, the stark, majestic beauty of the land, and the history of relationships between the settlers of the past and their modern-day descendants and the native Cheyenne is also an entity with a strong presence. Walt is the kind of detective whom I find most intriguing, flawed and fascinating, his keen intelligence expressed in his deductive reasoning skills and his wry humor. His interactions with the residents of the community, his love for his daughter, and his reflective grief over his wife's death are all important components of Walt Longmire. When a crime case from the past once again rears its ugly head, this time with murder as the result, prejudices and passions are combined in an explosive mix, one with devastating consequences. Author Craig Johnson writes with a sure sense of his people and their place, their ambitions and weaknesses, and the story line is consistently compelling. The conclusion is shattering--a stunning blow to the senses--yet we are ultimately left with the rekindling of the desire for life to continue and for laughter to reclaim its rightful rank. I was captivated by "The Cold Dish" from the very beginning, and it just got better as the story progressed. However, there was a turning point in the story line for me where Walt has to question a crime witness, a strange, alcohol-fueled, mule-riding man living in a decrepit cabin. The vivid word imagery of the scene and the interplay of dialogue between Walt and the surprisingly informative witness are simply superb, and a very good book then became a keeper. When you read "The Cold Dish", with my highest recommendation, you will discover exactly what I am talking about, and then, just like me, you will look forward to reading the rest of the books in the series.
DEATH WITHOUT COMPANY by Craig Johnson
Walt investigates a death by poison in this gripping novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Cold Dish and As the Crow Flies, the second in the Walt Longmire Mystery Series, the basis for LONGMIRE, the hit A&E original drama series
Now Johnson takes us back to the rugged landscape of Absaroka County, Wyoming, for Death Without Company. When Mari Baroja is found poisoned at the Durant Home for Assisted Living, Sheriff Longmire is drawn into an investigation that reaches fifty years into the mysterious woman’s dramatic Basque past. Aided by his friend Henry Standing Bear, Deputy Victoria Moretti, and newcomer Santiago Saizarbitoria, Sheriff Longmire must connect the specter of the past to the present to find the killer among them.
KINDNESS GOES UNPUNISHED by Craig Johnson
Walt Longmire returns for his third adventure but this time he is in the City of Brotherly Love, where no act of kindness goes unpunished. Walt has been the sheriff in Wyoming's Absaroka County for twenty-four years, where his wit and charm have helped him solve many crimes. But that can't prepare him for the savage attack on his daughter, Cady, a Philadelphia lawyer who has unwittingly become embroiled in a political cover-up. As Walt and his best friend, Henry Standing Bear, scour the city for clues, he gets help from his deputy Victoria Moretti and her family of Philly police. But Longmire wasn’t born yesterday. He's willing to pull out all the stops to find Cady's attacker and show the big city that this old-timer has a few moves left in his saddlebag of tricks. Those who enjoy Tony Hillerman and James Lee Burke will delight in Johnson's third Sheriff Longmire adventure.
ANOTHER MAN'S MOCCASINS by Craig Johnson
Walt Longmire unravels a mystery that connects two murders across forty years...
When the body of a young Vietnamese woman is found alongside the interstate in Absaroka County, Wyoming, Sheriff Walt Longmire is determined to discover the identity of the victim and is forced to confront the horrible similarities of this murder to that of his first homicide investigation as a marine in Vietnam.
To complicate matters, Virgil White Buffalo, a homeless Crow Indian, is found living in a nearby culvert and in possession of the young woman's purse. There are only two problems with what appears to be an open-and-shut case. One, the sheriff doesn't think Virgil White Buffalo, a Vietnam vet with a troubling past, is a murderer. And two, the photo that is found in the woman's purse looks hauntingly familiar to Walt.
In the fourth book in Craig Johnson's award-winning Walt Longmire series, the tough yet tender sheriff solves two murders tied in blood but separated by nearly forty years.
THE DARK HORSE by Craig Johnson
Walt Longmire goes undercover to save a woman in an unfriendly place...
Interweaving classic noir sensibilities and humor with contemporary themes of social justice, Craig Johnson's popular Walt Longmire mysteries transport readers to the sparse and rugged landscape of Wyoming. In The Dark Horse, the sheriff investigates when his instincts tell him something isn't right about a prisoner accused of killing her husband.
Wade Barsad, a man with a dubious past, locked his wife's horses in their barn and burned the animals alive. In return, Mary shot Wade in the head six times-or so the story goes. Walt doesn't believe Mary's confession, and he's determined to dig deeper. Posing as an insurance claims investigator, Walt soon discovers other people who might have wanted Wade dead, including a beautiful Guatemalan bartender and a rancher with a taste for liquor, but not for honesty.
The Dark Horse is sure to build on the success of Another Man's Moccasins as Sheriff Longmire unpins his star and ventures into a town without pity to save a woman without hope.
JUNKYARD DOGS by Craig Johnson
A missing thumb and dead developers are only the beginning for Sheriff Walt Longmire...
It's a volatile new economy in Durant, Wyoming, where the owners of a multi-million dollar development of ranchettes want to get rid of the adjacent junk-yard. When a severed thumb is discovered in the yard, conflicts erupt, and Walt Longmire, his trusty companion Dog, life-long friend Henry Standing Bear, and deputies Santiago Saizarbitoria and Victoria Moretti find themselves in a small town that feels more and more like a high plains pressure cooker.
Craig Johnson's award-winning Walt Longmire mysteries continue to find new fans, and Junkyard Dogs is sure to create many more devotees. The sixth book in the series is filled with Johnson's signature blend of wisecracks, Western justice, and page-turning plot twists, as the beloved sheriff finds himself star-deep in the darker aspects of human nature, in a story of love, laughs, death, and derelict automobiles.
HELL IS EMPTY by Craig Johnson
Wyoming's favorite sheriff braves a frozen inferno as he races to capture an escaped murderer.
Well-read and world-weary, Sheriff Walt Longmire has been maintaining order in Wyoming's Absaroka County for more than thirty years, but in this riveting seventh outing, he is pushed to his limits. Raynaud Shade, an adopted Crow Indian, has just confessed to murdering a boy ten years ago and burying him deep within the Big Horn Mountains. After transporting Shade and a group of other convicted murderers through a snowstorm, Walt is informed by the FBI that the body is buried in his jurisdiction-and the victim's name is White Buffalo. Guided only by Indian mysticism and a battered paperback of Dante's Inferno, Walt pursues Shade and his fellow escapees into the icy hell of the Cloud Peak Wilderness Area, cheating death to ensure that justice-both civil and spiritual-is served.
DIVORCE HORSE by Craig Johnson
Walt Longmire, the longtime sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming, has little time to relax. Still recovering from his manhunt chasing down escaped convict and sociopath Reynaud Shade in the Bighorn Mountains, Walt just can’t find the opportunity to sit back and kick off his cowboy boots. His daughter, Cady, is getting married in a few months to the brother of his under-sheriff Victoria Moretti and is in town, helping her dad ‘recuperate’ and to talk about love, life, and weddings.
Meanwhile, the American Indian Days Parade and Pow Wow are attracting tourists and trouble. The pride and joy of Tommy Jefferson’s stables—and the catalyst for his marital troubles—the notorious divorce horse, has gone missing, and Jefferson, renowned Indian Relay Racer and one-time meth head, wants him back. With the help of his best friend Henry Standing Bear and his daughter, The Greatest Legal Mind Of Our Time, Walt sets off to the races.
AS THE CROW FLIES by Craig Johnson
Walt gets shanghaied into a murder investigation on the Reservation in this New York Times bestseller from the author of The Cold Dish and Hell Is Empty, the eighth novel in the Walt Longmire Mystery Series, the basis for LONGMIRE, the hit A&E original drama series
Wyoming Sheriff Walt Longmire has a more important matter on his mind than cowboys and criminals. His daughter, Cady, is getting married to the brother of his under-sheriff, Victoria Moretti. Walt and old friend Henry Standing Bear are the de facto wedding planners and fear Cady’s wrath when the wedding locale arrangements go up in smoke two weeks before the big event.
The pair set out to find a new site for the nuptials on the Cheyenne Reservation, but their scouting expedition ends in horror as they witness a young Crow woman plummeting from Painted Warrior’s majestic cliffs. It’s not Walt’s turf, but the newly appointed tribal police chief and Iraqi war veteran, the beautiful Lolo Long, shanghais him into helping with the investigation. Walt is stretched thin as he mentors Lolo, attempts to catch the bad guys, and performs the role of father of the bride.
CHRISTMAS IN ABSAROKA COUNTY by Craig Johnson
It’s holiday season in Absaroka County and Sheriff Walt Longmire gets personal in this delightful collection of four short stories from New York Times–bestselling author Craig Johnson.
Readers glimpse a softer side of Sheriff Walt Longmire as he grapples with the death of his wife, Martha, and his sometimes turbulent but ever-loving relationship with his daughter, Cady. In these four stories—“Ministerial Aid", “Slick-Tongued Devil", “Toys for Tots", and “Unbalanced” (three of which have been sent to Johnson’s fans over the years in the author’s “Post-it” e-mails)—Walt is alternately at his best and his worst. He helps a somewhat delusional elderly victim of domestic abuse while sporting a bathrobe and a mean hangover on New Year’s Day. He’s sidelined by grief when his wife’s obituary reappears in the paper and there’s an unexpected knock on his door two days before Christmas. He strives to help even those who don’t want it when he picks up a young female hitchhiker, and he’s forced into some last-minute Christmas shopping by the Greatest Legal Mind of Our Time, during which he might just end up saving a young Navy chaplain’s Christmas.
Full of Longmire’s dry wit and good heart, Christmas in Absaroka County is a holiday must-have for every Longmire and Craig Johnson fan, and it also includes the first chapter of The Cold Dish, the first novel in the Walt Longmire Mystery Series. Full of Longmire’s dry wit and good heart, Christmas in Absaroka County is a holiday must-have for every Longmire and Craig Johnson fan, and it also includes the first chapter of The Cold Dish, the first novel in the Walt Longmire Mystery Series.
MESSENGER: A WALT LONGMIRE STORY by Craig Johnson
Sheriff Walt Longmire comes face to face with an other-worldy messenger in this hilarious short story from the New York Times bestselling author of As the Crow Flies and The Cold Dish.
Sheriff Walt Longmire, his long-time friend Henry Standing Bear, and his under-sheriff Victoria Moretti are returning from a fishing trip in the Bighorn Mountains when Walt receives a distress call from Crazy Woman Canyon. Forest service ranger Chuck Coon is in trouble. Walt, the Bear, and Vic arrive to find Coon and a young woman up a tree, so to speak. The unlikely duo are fending off three very real bears from the top of a Porta Potty and tell a mystifying story of another dangerous creature inside the “convenience.” When Walt, Henry, and Vic face the creature what they find may be a Messenger from the Camp of the Dead, with a very personal tie to Walt himself.
A must-have for every Longmire and Craig Johnson fan, Messenger also includes a teaser chapter from Johnson's new novel, A Serpent's Tooth.
A SERPENT'S TOOTH by Craig Johnson
The inspiration for A&E's Longmire finds himself in the crosshairs in the ninth book of the New York Times bestselling series.
The success of Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire series that began with The Cold Dish continues to grow after A&E’s hit show Longmire introduced new fans to the Wyoming sheriff. As the Crow Flies marked the series’ highest debut on the New York Times bestseller list. Now, in his ninth Western mystery, Longmire stares down his most dangerous foes yet.
It’s homecoming in Absaroka County, but the football and festivities are interrupted when a homeless boy wanders into town. A Mormon “lost boy,” Cord Lynear is searching for his missing mother but clues are scarce. Longmire and his companions, feisty deputy Victoria Moretti and longtime friend Henry Standing Bear, embark on a high plains scavenger hunt in hopes of reuniting mother and son. The trail leads them to an interstate polygamy group that’s presiding over a stockpile of weapons and harboring a vicious vendetta.
SPIRIT OF STEAMBOAT: A WALT LONGMIRE STORY by Craig Johnson
A holiday tale from the New York Times bestselling author of the Walt Longmire mystery series, the inspiration for A&E’s hit show Longmire.
"It’s a question of what you have to do, what you have to live with if you don’t.”
Sheriff Walt Longmire is reading A Christmas Carol in his office on December 24th when he’s interrupted by the ghost of Christmas past: a young woman with a hairline scar across her forehead and more than a few questions about Walt’s predecessor, Lucian Connally. Walt doesn’t recognize the mystery woman, but she seems to know him and claims to have something she must return to Connally. With his daughter, Cady, and his under-sheriff Vic Moretti in Philadelphia for the holidays, Walt is at loose ends, and despite the woman’s reticence to reveal her identity, he agrees to help her.
At the Durant Home for Assisted Living Lucian Connally is several tumblers into his Pappy Van Winkle’s and swears he’s never clapped eyes on the woman before. Disappointed, she whispers "Steamboat” and begins a story that takes them all back to Christmas Eve 1988, when three people died in a terrible crash and a young girl had the slimmest chance of survival . . . back to a record-breaking blizzard, to Walt’s first year as sheriff, with a young daughter at home and a wife praying for his safety . . . back to a whiskey-soaked World War II vet ready to fly a decommissioned plane and risk it all to save a life.
Back to the Spirit of Steamboat.
Craig Johnson is the author of eight novels in the Walt Longmire mystery series, which has garnered popular and critical acclaim. The Cold Dish was a Dilys Award finalist and the French edition won Le Prix du Polar Nouvel Observateur/BibliObs. Death Without Company, the Wyoming State Historical Association’s Book of the Year, won France’s Le Prix 813. Another Man’s Moccasins was the Western Writers of America’s Spur Award winner and the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers’ Book of the Year, and The Dark Horse, the fifth in the series, was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. Junkyard Dogs won the Watson Award for a mystery novel with the best sidekick, and Hell Is Empty, selected by Library Journal as the Best Mystery of the Year, was a New York Times best seller, as was As the Crow Flies. The Walt Longmire series is the basis for the hit A&E drama, Longmire, starring Robert Taylor, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Katee Sackoff.
Johnson lives in Ucross, Wyoming, population twenty-five.
http://craigallenjohnson.com/
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