"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
The hit drama Longmire is now streaming on Paramount+
Recovering from his harrowing experiences in Mexico, Sheriff Walt Longmire returns to Absaroka County, Wyoming, to lick his wounds and try once again to maintain justice in a place with grudges that go back generations. When a shepherd is found dead, Longmire suspects it could be suicide. But the shepherd's connection to the Extepares, a powerful family of Basque ranchers with a history of violence, leads the sheriff into an intricate investigation of a possible murder.
As Walt searches for information about the shepherd, he comes across strange carvings on trees, as well as play money coupons from inside Mallo Cup candies, which he interprets as messages from his spiritual guide, Virgil White Buffalo. Longmire doesn't know how these little blue cards are appearing, but Virgil usually reaches out if a child is in danger. So when a young boy with ties to the Extepare clan arrives in town, the stakes grow even higher.
Even more complicating, a renegade wolf has been haunting the Bighorn Mountains, and the townspeople are out for blood. With both a wolf and a killer on the loose, Longmire follows a twisting trail of evidence, leading to dark and shocking conclusions.
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Release date
September 17, 2019 -
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- ISBN: 9780525522515
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- ISBN: 9780525522515
- File size: 1010 KB
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- English
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Reviews
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Publisher's Weekly
June 3, 2019
Bestseller Johnson’s solid 15th Walt Longmire novel finds the laconic sheriff back home in Absaroka County, Wyo., barely recovered from the serious injuries he received on his quixotic foray into Mexico in 2018’s Depth of Winter. The discovery of a dead sheep leads Walt into the Bighorns, where he comes across a lone wolf—and potential predator—as well as the body of shepherd Miguel Hernandez, his feet “stripped of all flesh and hanging six feet above the ground.” Quips a doctor during the autopsy: “I think it’s safe to assume the wolf didn’t hang him,” though the wolf evidently was able to nibble on the corpse’s feet. Hernandez might have hanged himself, but Walt soon digs up evidence suggesting otherwise. Meanwhile, Walt antagonizes those who want to solve the area’s so-called wolf problem by shooting the animals, collapses after saving a man’s life by carrying him up a steep hill, and endures the wrath of people close to him who worry about what they see as foolish behavior. Johnson keeps the reader guessing up to the satisfying ending. Witty dialogue, an endearing lead, and distinctive supporting characters all add up to a winner. Author tour. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt & Hochman Literary. -
Kirkus
July 15, 2019
Sheriff Longmire untangles a nasty family snarl. Back from Mexico, where his war against a drug lord (Depth of Winter, 2018) very nearly cost him his life, Walt Longmire, Sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming, is having trouble regaining his strength and characteristic swagger. Things at first seem fairly straightforward: A wolf designated 777M may or may not have killed a sheep. Longmire and his undersheriff, Victoria Moretti, begin to investigate--the sheep's DNA will be analyzed, a predator--wolf or mountain lion--will be identified. Either way, 777M has rattled the populace, and wolf panic has set in. It seems inevitable that 777M will be hunted down, and much as he regrets this, Longmire cannot do much to prevent it. Keasik Cheechoo ("Cree-Assiniboine/Young Dogs, Piapot First Nation, a Native wolf advocate,") appears to plead the wolf's case, but Absaroka County's legal structure has taken the process out of the sheriff's hands. Other Native characters contribute to the narrative: Henry Standing Bear, a Northern Cheyenne, offers Longmire counsel, and for a while it seems 777M may be a manifestation of the spirit of Virgil White Buffalo, who helped Longmire in the past. Henry Standing Bear is a vivid and appealing character, but the suggestion of a spiritual involvement is ultimately unrequited. As the investigation goes on, things get much more complicated. The sheep belonged to Abarrane Extepare, a second-generation Basque American and one of the richest men in Absaroka County, and was herded by a Chilean shepherd named Miguel Hernandez. When Longmire and Moretti find Hernandez, he has been hanged, and though suicide is a possibility, a reasonable case can be made for murder. The investigation widens, and the dynamics and particulars of sheep farming, of migrant labor and shepherding, and of land use in general are ably explored through the history of the Extepare family. And it is in the family that the mystery finally finds a structure and Longmire finds a solution. Sometimes informative and sometimes murky but overall a rewarding journey to Absaroka County.COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Booklist
August 1, 2019
This is the seventeenth book in the New York Times-best-selling Longmire series, which began in 2004. Walt Longmire is still sheriff of Wyoming's Absaroka County, and, although there are whispers of his retirement, it is doubtful that anyone else could fill his boots. Still recovering from his experiences in Mexico (Depth of Winter, 2018), Walt undertakes an investigation into the hanging death?suicide or murder??of a Basque shepherd, complicated by a wolf sighting at the scene. He finds himself in an empathic relationship with the animal while contending with an overly concerned (and armed) populace and an amateur lycanthropy buff. Walt is also worried that the Mallo Cup play money coupons he keeps finding are being left by his deceased spiritual guide, Virgil White Buffalo, to warn him that there is a child in danger. Johnson serves up another helping of his signature blend of mystery, history, humor, and mysticism set in the vast emptiness of the high plains. Recommend to fans of Nevada Barr, C. J. Box, and Ace Atkins.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.) -
Library Journal
April 1, 2019
In this next in Johnson's Longmire mysteries, inspiration for the popular Netflix original series, Wyoming sheriff Walt Longmire tries to learn whether a shepherd's hanging is suicide even as he ducks a murderous Basque family with little love for the local authorities when a huge wolf appears in the Big Horn Mountains. And he kind of feels for the wolf.
Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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