Next to Last Stand

One of Craig Johnson's favorite movies is the unheralded modern western comedy “Rancho Deluxe” starring Jeff Bridges and Sam Waterston. He likes it because it's laid back and lackadaisical in its approach. Much like Rancho Deluxe, Johnson's newest Longmire jaunt, “Next to Last Stand,” takes a similarly laid-back approach.

It's summer in Absaroka County. (Anyone who reads Longmire knows that they follow a seasonal pattern.) The death of an elderly military vet at the Soldiers' and Sailors' Home leads to the discovery of a million dollars in cash in the man's room, and this then sends the usual gang of sheriff's department regulars down a winding trail involving an art heist tied to Custer's Last Stand (or the Battle of Greasy Grass–as Henry Standing Bear would call it).

Like most of Johnson's books, the plot moves along at a crisp pace, the back-and-forth banter is razor-sharp, and the denizens of Absaroka fill out the what would otherwise be a thin plot.

By the end of the book, I realized that I didn't care who stole the art and who might have killed Charley Lee. I didn't care because finding out meant that I would have to stop watching Walt and Vic and Henry and Ruby and everyone else launch one-liners for another year until the seventeenth installment comes out.

At this point, the world that Johnson has created has taken over the mysteries. He could write a book that was entirely Walt hanging out with the locals, and I'd probably enjoy it more than a mystery novel. Don't get me wrong–I like the mystery, too. And it helps get Walt out of the office and interacting with the rest of the crew. But, I'd read a book where Walt just hangs out at the Red Pony for 300 pages and relish every word of it.