Following Walt and Henry through a flashback adventure is almost as good as a full novel. This was a fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat, adventure that kept you entertained every moment. I am always happy to see a little bit of history included in Mr. Johnson's writing it adds to the overall experience. I was thrilled to see the reference to immersion suits way back in the 1970s when they were indeed available for use but not widely put into practice. Thank you for another adventure with two of my favorite characters! ( )

Tooth and Claw: A Longmire Story by Craig Johnson takes readers to late December 1970 and the North Slope of Alaska. Long before Walt Longmire became Sheriff in Wyoming, he was head of security at an oil rig. Henry Standing Bear has come up from the lower 48 to see him and finds Walt drinking heavily and isolating himself. Vietnam took a toll and Walt is coping by drinking and staying away from the woman he loves, Martha.

The isolation and the cold makes some people snap. The latest causality of a breakdown was George Frazier. Frazier works for Walt and was supposed to be on the security detail for a U.S. Geological Survey team doing core testing out on the ice the next day. The day before the Winter Solstice and it will have just 3 hours and 42 minutes of daylight.

With Fraizer out, that means Walt Longmire has to go on what should be a relatively easy run. Relatively easy for the artic weather conditions. Henry Standing Bear tags along as he had been complaining about not doing anything, but playing chess in Longmire’s cramped quarters. Good thing he goes too because what should have been a relatively easy same day excursion turns into fight for survival against a massive polar bear that, seemingly, can’t be killed. Throw in a ghost ship, bad weather, and members of the excursion party being killed left and right, and the result is one heck of a pulp adventure read.

Tooth and Claw: A Longmire Story by Craig Johnson is one heck of a good read. A fast-moving novella, it comes down to the most primitive battle there is --- man vs nature. The getting there is very much well worth it.

While I had hoped to read this months ago via NetGalley, the publisher, Penguin Group Viking, denied me, so I had to wait for Dallas Public Library to get it. They finally did. My reading copy was a digital one through the Libby/OverDrive app.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2024 ( )

In a flashback, Walt and Henry are in Alaska working for an oil company when they are attacked by a deranged polar bear. This is not middle-aged Longmire in Wyoming doing cop-like stuff. The sounds of George Guidall in my ears made it sound like same, but it wasn't ( )

Returning from Vietnam, Walt and Henry are in Alaska working for an oil company. Things are going well until a very large, deranged Polar Bear makes an appearance. The big bear is not their only worry, just their main one as Walt and Henry, along with other members of their team are trying to survive a brutal artic storm only to find themselves on a ghost ship the SS BAYCHIMO. Things improve until they don't. A fast paced look back at Walt and Henry in their younger years. ( )

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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WHAT'S TOOTH AND CLAW ABOUT?
After his time with the Marines is over, Walt needs to get away from people, society, anything that makes him think of Vietnam and what he witnessed there. He also wants to get away from what he knows--and what fits that description better than Alaska? He takes a job working security on an oil field, replacing someone who'd killed himself.

He also finds himself drinking. A lot. There's not much to do when he's not on the job—and you get the impression he can do a lot of it with a little bit of a buzz on.

We encounter Walt in this state as Henry comes up to visit--he's concerned about what Walt's doing to himself (as is Walt's former fiance, Martha). Henry shows up at the end of December, when there are very few hours of daylight each day up by the Arctic Circle.

Henry's a little bored, truth be told, so when Walt finds the opportunity to take him along on a quick research trip to help keep a scientist safe they go.

The day trip doesn't go the way they expect (naturally). Instead, the friends find danger, a blizzard, a large polar bear (even by polar bear standards), a ghost ship, and some garden-variety human evil.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT TOOTH AND CLAW?
This quick novella was fine. Walt and Henry against nature—weather and animal—isn't exactly new territory, but Alaska isn't what we're used to seeing from them. It makes Wyoming look crowded. It's a bit more extreme than we're used to for them.

Add in a bunch of people we don't know and a ship out of legend, and you've got something even better. There's a potential supernatural element here--and the story works either way you approach that element.

It's not a perfect read. The criminal activity seemed a bit perfunctory—and really didn't add much to the novella, I might have appreciated the novella more without it. I don't know that Johnson sold Walt's drinking as being as much of a problem as Henry and a couple of others made it out to be.

But for what it is—a quick thrill-ride and a look at young-Walt, it's good. There are some entertaining moments, it's good to see these two in another environment. There's at least one character I'd like to run into again.

It's not a must-read for Longmire fans or the best introduction to the characters—but it'll please longtime fans and should whet the appetites of new readers for the full novels. That's good enough, right? ( )