The Cold Dish

I want to start off this review with a few caveats: 1. Yes, I am reading this book because I am a fan of the Longmire TV show, as I'd say many people are based on the reviews so far; 2. I am not usually one for mystery novels. Often times, when it comes to who is who and why they are there, I feel like I need one of those white boards that you see in crime shows (ironically enough) just to remember who is who and what they mean to the plot. With that said, I do like some books that keep their mysteries contained and tend to have good writing. One example of this would be the Harry Dresdin series by Jim Butcher. In the first book, Butcher tends to keep the story small, and this allows for us to get the feel of the world and the characters in it. With Walt Longmire, well, there are a few problems.

First, let me start off with the good. The setting is what really sets this book apart from all the other books out there. It is set in Absaroka County, Wyoming which is a far cry from the gritty metropolitan crime novels one usually finds. I also liked how Longmire is not your typical detective. He isn't new to the job, or a drunk sad detective down on his luck, he is instead a man who is supposed to find and put his life back together after his wife died four years ago, and his daughter moved out of Wyoming. He is a character that I felt sympathy for and was able to understand and sympathize with. Then there is the relationship with all the side characters he has. One example would be his relationship with Henry Standing Bear. One can tell by the way they are written that they are very old friends, and their banter is an excellent high point in the book, even when it comes to the two of them making tough decisions about a case.

And on that point, let me discuss with you about the case of the story. For starters, let me tell you that this and the case from the TV shows have been moved around a bot. With some characters dying, or scenes being made in completely different ways than in the show, and yet others almost being copied verbatim. It is almost as much fun to read the books in a scavenger hunt style way, looking for scenes from the show, as much as it is to read the book itself. There is enough variety here that, even if you have seen the show, you will probably be surprised by the text in the end.

And now let me start off with the things that annoyed me. The author has an...interesting way of writing out his novel. Firstly, he has a troublesome relationship with pronouns in that he uses them too often, especially at the beginning of a scene. This means that we know Walt is with a male person, but we have no idea who ‘he' is. Is it Henry, Deputy Fergison, the Easter Bunny? It isn't until a few paragraphs in that we finally get context as to who is speaking with a name drop that things finally begin to make sense, and that just annoyed me. As I stated above, I am already trying to keep characters straight, I don't need anymore confusion.

Also this novel works at a much slower pace than most mystery novels. Johnson using Walt's memories to show the characters and places of the town. At best, when told in flashbacks, these can provide the details of a scene and context to what is happening now in the mystery. At worst, it can be like when you go on a sunday drive with your grandparents, and they ramble on about a doctor who practiced medicine 50 years ago, and died 30 years ago, and how they knew him, meanwhile all you see is how that former building the doctor used to work out of is now a McDonald's. That is to say that Walt's internal monologue tends to make things get off track for me and seemed to have little overall point to the novel. It also does not help that the transitions from flashbacks and these musings tend to not be very smooth, especially coupled with the pronoun problem detailed above. It is compounded when the author has an exciting event happen, only to have Walt slip into a monologue. This is something that grades on me, no matter how much I like the main character.

When it comes to detective stories, I think that there are many worse out there, such as the Corman Strike series. This one may be one that I pick up again, but let me say that on the list of series to start reading, this one is far down at the bottom. I give the first book a three out of five. I'll still continue it, if only to see that the transitions get smoother and the characters more detailed in later installments.