First Frost
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15
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Average rating5
The past and future collide in this gripping new addition to the beloved New York Times bestselling Longmire series. It’s the summer of 1964, and recent college graduates Walt Longmire and Henry Standing Bear read the writing on the wall and enlist to serve in the Vietnam War. As they catch a few final waves in California before reporting for duty, a sudden storm assaults the shores and capsizes a nearby cargo boat. Walt and Henry jump to action, but it’s soon revealed by the police who greet them ashore that the sunken boat carried valuable contraband from underground sources. The boys, in their early twenties and in the peak of their physical prowess from playing college football for the last four years, head out on Route 66. The question, of course, is how far they will get before the consequences of their actions catch up to them—the answer being, not very. Back in the present day, Walt is forced to speak before a Judge following the fatal events of The Longmire Defense. With powerful enemies lurking behind the scenes, the sheriff of Absaroka County must consider his options if he wishes to finish the fight he started. Going back and forth between 1964 and the present day, Craig Johnson brings us a propulsive dual timeline as Walt Longmire stands between the crossfire of good and evil, law and anarchy, and compassion and cruelty at two pivotal stages in his life.
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It's a yearly tradition: the annual trip back to Absaroka to catch up with Walt, Vic, Henry, and the rest. It's one of the few books I look forward to every year, and one of the few writers who doesn't misfire.
This time, Walt is dealing with the fallout from the previous book, THE LONGMIRE DEFENSE, and is being brought up on possible charges for a shooting that occurred at the end end of the previous book. He is also dealing with a story from the past, brought about when his fiancee, Vic Moretti, finds a behemoth longboard in Walt's basement.
What's a landlocked cowboy in Wyoming doing with a piece of vintage surf-riding wood?
Well, turns out–that's a long story.
Masterfully constructed by weaving the present into the past, Walt tells Vic the story of why he still has a longboard from his college days at USC, and details what seems to be the first time Walt and Henry really put their heads into a hornets' nest.
With the Vietnam war looming for both Walt and Henry, they had a week before they had to report to their respective locations for basic training. Intending to drive the country from Los Angeles to Fort Polk and Parris Island, respectively, karma has other plans when Walt and Henry end up sidelined in a barren nothing of a town where the only people there really want them to leave.
The town was dealing with its own history of being part of the internment camps for the Japanese in WWII, but that's only half the story.
Written in Craig Johnson's practiced and familiar laid-back prose, Walt and Henry seem to have odds stacked well against them this time.
We know that Walt and Henry will survive their encounter in the desert–but finding out how that first Walt-and-Henry adventure turns them into the men we know so well from the later adventures was a fascinating piece of history for this acclaimed and well-loved series.
It's a yearly tradition: the annual trip back to Absaroka. And it's also a yearly tradition that Johnson swings for the fences and knocks it out of the park.
Featured Series
18 primary books25 released booksWalt Longmire is a 26-book series with 18 primary works first released in 2004 with contributions by Craig Johnson.
