The Western Star

I've been a fan of Craig's since I picked up the first book in the Longmire series. Each year since then, he's graced the shelves with another jaunt around Absaroka County, Wyoming, and I look forward to that book every year.

This year's installment is THE WESTERN STAR. The title refers to a steam train that takes all the sheriffs of Wyoming on a four-day run where they can get drunk, have a good time, and deal with general sheriff business.

The book leaps back-and-forth in time, telling a story about Walt Longmire in the present, and leaping back to tell the story of a young Walt, just two weeks on the job, taking the ride on the Western Star with his boss, the cantankerous Lucian Connally.

Young Walt purchases a copy of Christie's MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS at the beginning of the book. That should tell you where the story is headed.

In the present, Walt and his usual cast of Absaroka regulars (Henry, Vic, Lucian, Dog, Cady, and granddaughter Lola) are dealing with their own crisis. The situation in the present ties into the mystery in the past.

Craig leaps back and forth in time with simple grace and manages to weave both stories together. This is a trick he's done before, but it still works. It's always interesting to get more insight into Walt and why he is who he is. Seeing Walt and Henry as young men is a pleasant contrast to who they've become.

As always, Johnson's prose is effortlessly readable and charming. One of my favorite things about how he writes (and something I've been trying to take notes on) is the lack of dialogue attribution. There's probably only five, maybe six uses of the word “said” in the whole book. Instead, the dialogue blends seamlessly with the prose and there's never any doubt about who is saying what. The dialogue is sharp and witty, too. There are moments of laugh-out-loud humor balanced in among the seriousness of the murder. His descriptions are sparse as Wyoming prairie, but there is nothing left to the imagination. He peels back layers of description and gives you precisely what you need to know with only a few simple phrases. It's a gift to be envied, for sure.

I'm already looking forward to the next installment. They really can't come fast enough for my tastes.

Five stars.