Publishers Weekly
In Johnson's superb fifth contemporary mystery to feature Wyoming sheriff Walt Longmire (after 2008's Another Man's Moccasins), Walt has his doubts about Mary Barsad's guilt when she confesses to shooting her husband, Wade, after Wade allegedly burned down their barn with all Mary's horses inside. Even though the crime is out of his jurisdiction in a neighboring county, Walt can't shake the feeling that there's more to Mary's story. Posing as an insurance agent, Walt starts poking around the tiny town of Absalom, whose main attraction are the fights at the local bar. He meets an illegal immigrant bartender with a knack for crime solving, the Barsads' loyal cowhand and some ranchers who may have had their own reasons for wanting Wade dead. Walt digs deep into the dilapidated town's history, unearthing secrets that might be better left buried. Series fans will delight in seeing Walt return to his cowboy roots as he mounts a horse and navigates the sparsely populated state. 8-city author tour.(June)
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Library Journal
In his fifth outing (after Another Man's Moccasins), Sheriff Walt Longmire goes undercover to prove that Mary Barsad, confessed murderer, did not kill her husband after he shot her horses and set the barn on fire. Walt finds that there is a lot more going on in Wyoming's remote Powder River area, as he meets a cast of characters with much to hide. VERDICT While not as hardboiled as C.J. Box's crime thrillers nor as humorous as J.M. Hayes's "Mad Dog and Englishman" series, Johnson's deft, twisty storytelling immediately grips the reader. His latest has a heart as big as a Wyoming sky.
—Jo Ann Vicarel
Kirkus Reviews
The Sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyo., follows a hunch to free an allegedly self-made widow. Though his jail is housing confessed killer Mary Barsad, Walt Longmire has a feeling the horse-loving lady is innocent. Prescription drugs found in her system have left her with little appetite and even less ability to focus on the here and now. Posing as an insurance adjuster, Walt goes to the Powder River country to sniff around. His welcome is less than warm. On the night of the murder, Wade Barsad's ranch house and barn were destroyed by fire, along with his wife's prize cutting horses-all except for Wahoo Sue, Mary's favorite, whom Barsad claimed to have taken out and shot. The long list of people happy to see Wade dead includes his hired hand Hershel Vanskike, whose hopes of fortune rest in an antique rifle, and just about everybody else in a three-county area. When Walt rents a room in Absalom, only a Guatemalan bartender and her half-Cheyenne son Benjamin are willing to talk to him. Though he tries to keep a low profile, Walt gets pushed into fighting Cliff Cly, king of the local Friday night fights. It turns out that Barsad was in the witness protection program and had a lot more enemies than the locals he'd antagonized. After a trip with Hershel and Benjamin to Twentymile Butte shows Cly in a new light, only a meeting with Wahoo Sue saves Walt from death. Walt's fifth (Another Man's Moccasins, 2008, etc.) is stunningly descriptive and compulsively readable.
From the Publisher
Praise for Craig Johnson and the Walt Longmire Mystery Series
"It's the scenery—and the big guy standing in front of the scenery—that keeps us coming back to Craig Johnson's lean and leathery mysteries." —The New York Times Book Review
"Johnson's hero only gets better—both at solving cases and at hooking readers—with age." —Publishers Weekly
"Like the greatest crime novelists, Johnson is a student of human nature. Walt Longmire is strong but fallible, a man whose devil-may-care stoicism masks a heightened sensitivity to the horrors he's witnessed." —Los Angeles Times
"Johnson's trademarks [are] great characters, witty banter, serious sleuthing, and a love of Wyoming bigger than a stack of derelict cars." —The Boston Globe
"The characters talk straight from the hip and the Wyoming landscape is its own kind of eloquence." —The New York Times
"[Walt Longmire] is an easy man to like. . . . Johnson evokes the rugged landscape with reverential prose, lending a heady atmosphere to his story." —The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Stepping into Walt's world is like slipping on a favorite pair of slippers, and it's where those slippers lead that provides a thrill. Johnson pens a series that should become a 'must' read, so curl up, get comfortable, and enjoy the ride." —The Denver Post
"Johnson's pacing is tight and his dialogue snaps." —Entertainment Weekly
AUGUST 2009 - AudioFile
Craig Johnson's cowboy sheriff, Walt Longmire, returns, investigating a suspicious murder on a hunch that the wrong suspect may have been condemned. George Guidall sets the mood from the opening moments with an ambling, pastoral narration that walks this modern Western through its desolate setting. Speaking with an almost tactile drawl, Guidall sounds as if he's relaxing in an easy chair as he tells the story. The barren Wyoming prairie is an apt backdrop for Guidall's pitch-perfect Western twang and effective assortment of Native American accents. The characters are somewhat indistinguishable initially, but the lazy pace of the story and Johnson's descriptive writing make for an entertaining yarn. A.P.C. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
