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Fiction.
Mystery.
Suspense.
Thriller.
The Denver Post hails Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire mystery series as a must-read. Joining the four previous novels-all of which have been Book Sense picks-The Dark Horse puts a unique Wyoming twist on the classic British village mystery. When Longmire meets a woman jailed for her husband's death, he travels outside his usual haunts to discover the truth behind this unusual murder case.… (more)
I’m a fan of Walt Longmire (first review here), an aging sheriff who represents many solid Western values, including independence, justice and connection to land and history. This is the 5th book in the series, and for me, the weakest. Luckily, I already have the next in the series available.
The story begins with a woman named Mary Barsad who is transferred to Walt’s tiny two-cell ‘jail’ as a means of making space–and revenue. And, just perhaps, the nieghboring sheriff’s sneaky way of arousing Walt’s interest in the case. Mary is accused of murdering her husband Wade shortly after he burned down their barn, including her beloved horses trapped inside. Everyone agrees Wade had it coming, but since Mary confessed and has since refused to talk, a guilty sentence seems unavoidable.
Some days you are in the mood, and some you aren’t, you know? Many of the ingredients I enjoyed previously are here: Walt’s taciturn character, the brave Dog, the scrabble of the small town life, the rich description of the desolate setting, and the subtle humor. The narrative structure, however, was an utter fail for me–although by other reviews, I wouldn’t say that’s a universal opinion. It starts “October 27, 11 a.m.” backtracks to “October 18: nine days earlier, morning,” and then continues alternating forward through the two timelines until they dovetail. Apparently, I’m supposed to pay attention to the date in order to orient myself, but as a person that has a hard enough time remembering today’s date, it didn’t work. The result was a disjointed narrative that failed to achieve finesse or subtlety. Johnson used a similar technique in the prior book, Another Man’s Moccasins, but as those stories were separated by decades as well as countries, there was a better sense of time and place.
My second issue might very well be present in all the other books, but I fancy there was a bit more subtlety in earlier books. This time, ingredients felt more boilerplate, and I have to wonder if Hollywood was showing its tendrils. Animal abuse clearly identified The Bad Guy(s). There was the single mother with Big Aspirations and her Observant and Gutsy kid. There was the Undercover Friend, sneaking into town to provide back-up. The Old Ranch Hand served as lead dog on the case. There was also the strange moment of Walt’s generosity, which I realized later was a plot point to move the story to where it needed to go. It isn’t that his being generous didn’t make sense; it was the sheer unprecedented nature of it, in a county where most are living check to check. One of the solutions to a small mystery was telegraphed from the beginning, and there never was a good reason why Walt believed Anna was innocent.
Ending on a everything neatly tied note, I found myself wondering if it was time for a break. But the first chapter of Junkyard Dog was tacked on to the end of the book, and quickly found myself chuckling, so there’s at least one more Walt story in my immediate future. ( )
There's nothing better than an audio book I can't stop listening to, and this is one of them. Longmire decides to investigate a murder in a neighboring county, in spite of the confession already made. Very vivid, and we learn something new about Walt's family and background along the way. ( )
(2009)Walt tries to help a women accused of killing her husband and finds that the husband has faked his death and convinced her she had killed him, when in fact he had killed his brother and then tried to hide the body in a fire.KIRKUS REVIEWThe 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 horsesall 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.
dark horse:noun 1a; a usually little known contender (as a racehorse) that makes an unexpectedly good showing b: an entrant in a contest that is judged unlikely to succeed. 2: a person who reveals little about himself or herself, esp. someone who has unexpected talents or skills
Dedication
For Sue Fletcher, the real "Wahoo Sue,"
and
for Juana DeLeon, whose heritage lives on in Auda, Marlen, and Benjamin.
First words
"It was the third week of a high-plains October, and an unseasonably extended summer had baked the color from the landscape and had turned the rusted griders of the old bridge a thinned-out tired brown."
Quotations
"It's important to me because I believe you're innocent and I've spent most of my life defending and protecting the innocent."
I watched Hershel and Benjamin, cowpokes separated by a good sixty years but joined in a brotherhood of horseback and by a thing we all shared, the want of a journey to a mystical place.
There was a lesson my mother had instilled in me at an early age, which had been reinforced by my experience in Vietnam and by my twenty-four years as sheriff of Absaroka County. She said that I should protect and cherish the young, the old, and the infirm, because at some point I would be all of these things before my own journey ended.
I remember him speaking to the horses he shod in a low and reassuring voice, explaining what he was doing to them; he said it was one of the things we owed them for their absolute, unreserved, unswerving loyalty. He said the outside of a horse is always good for the inside of a man.
"Dog started and made a move to fetch it, but I grabbed his collar, and we both watched as the black hat hung over the void of the Powder River, pitched to one side, and disappeared into the northbound water below."
Fiction.
Mystery.
Suspense.
Thriller.
The Denver Post hails Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire mystery series as a must-read. Joining the four previous novels-all of which have been Book Sense picks-The Dark Horse puts a unique Wyoming twist on the classic British village mystery. When Longmire meets a woman jailed for her husband's death, he travels outside his usual haunts to discover the truth behind this unusual murder case.
▾Library descriptions
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▾LibraryThing members' description
Book description
Wade Barsad burns down his barn with his wife Mary's horses in it. In return, she shoots him in the head.
-----------------------------------------
Wade Barsad. a man with a dubious past and a gift for maknig enemies, burned his wife Mary's horses in their barn; in retribution, she shot him in the head six times, or so the story goes. But Sheriff Walt Longmire doesn't believe Mary's confession and is determined to dig deeper.
Unpinning his star to pose as an insurance investigator, Walt visits the Barsad ranch and discovers that everyone in town - including a beautiful Guatamalen bartender and a rancher with a taste for liquer - had a reason for wanting Wade dead.
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I’m a fan of Walt Longmire (first review here), an aging sheriff who represents many solid Western values, including independence, justice and connection to land and history. This is the 5th book in the series, and for me, the weakest. Luckily, I already have the next in the series available.
The story begins with a woman named Mary Barsad who is transferred to Walt’s tiny two-cell ‘jail’ as a means of making space–and revenue. And, just perhaps, the nieghboring sheriff’s sneaky way of arousing Walt’s interest in the case. Mary is accused of murdering her husband Wade shortly after he burned down their barn, including her beloved horses trapped inside. Everyone agrees Wade had it coming, but since Mary confessed and has since refused to talk, a guilty sentence seems unavoidable.
Some days you are in the mood, and some you aren’t, you know? Many of the ingredients I enjoyed previously are here: Walt’s taciturn character, the brave Dog, the scrabble of the small town life, the rich description of the desolate setting, and the subtle humor. The narrative structure, however, was an utter fail for me–although by other reviews, I wouldn’t say that’s a universal opinion. It starts “October 27, 11 a.m.” backtracks to “October 18: nine days earlier, morning,” and then continues alternating forward through the two timelines until they dovetail. Apparently, I’m supposed to pay attention to the date in order to orient myself, but as a person that has a hard enough time remembering today’s date, it didn’t work. The result was a disjointed narrative that failed to achieve finesse or subtlety. Johnson used a similar technique in the prior book, Another Man’s Moccasins, but as those stories were separated by decades as well as countries, there was a better sense of time and place.
My second issue might very well be present in all the other books, but I fancy there was a bit more subtlety in earlier books. This time, ingredients felt more boilerplate, and I have to wonder if Hollywood was showing its tendrils. Animal abuse clearly identified The Bad Guy(s). There was the single mother with Big Aspirations and her Observant and Gutsy kid. There was the Undercover Friend, sneaking into town to provide back-up. The Old Ranch Hand served as lead dog on the case. There was also the strange moment of Walt’s generosity, which I realized later was a plot point to move the story to where it needed to go. It isn’t that his being generous didn’t make sense; it was the sheer unprecedented nature of it, in a county where most are living check to check. One of the solutions to a small mystery was telegraphed from the beginning, and there never was a good reason why Walt believed Anna was innocent.
Ending on a everything neatly tied note, I found myself wondering if it was time for a break. But the first chapter of Junkyard Dog was tacked on to the end of the book, and quickly found myself chuckling, so there’s at least one more Walt story in my immediate future. (