After the events depicted in Hell and Back, Absaroka County Sheriff Walt Longmire is recovering at the home of “The Greatest Legal Mind” of our time, aka his daughter Cady. His enjoyment of also getting to hang out with his new granddaughter is cut short when he is called back to work to investigate a missing motorist who unfortunately trusted a little too much the accuracy of Google Maps.
When the man wakes up, he doesn’t know his name, where he is, or how he got there. A sign above an Industrial Indian Boarding School informs him that he is in Fort Pratt, but it’s a strangely familiar café waitress who tells him that he is in Montana. A band in the hat he’s wearing seems to indicate that it’s a gift to one Walt Longmire of Absaroka County, Wyoming, while the familiar-feeling gun in his holster is one issued to lawmen.
Another year has ended and once again we take a look back at just a few of the many books that were reviewed in KRL and KRL News and Reviews in 2021. While 2021 was another difficult year, a lot of wonderful books came out! All but one of our main reviewers share in this post their top 5-10ish favorite books they reviewed in 2021. Katherine Costa wanted to include favorite authors and TV shows that she has reviewed, so hers is going up in a separate post next week!
“I am a young woman in modern America, living on the Rez – my life is always in danger.” When Jaya “Longbow” Long says this to Absaroka Sheriff Walt Longmire, the high schooler is only speaking the truth. Native women are murdered at a rate ten times higher than the national average, yet the numerous reasons linked to racial and economic disparities are often ignored by the general media. Jurisdiction miscommunications and confusion play a large role in this as well, which is why Lame Deer, Montana, Chief Lono Long has requested/ordered a favor from the Wyoming sheriff.
History is written by the winners. That’s never more apparent than in Absaroka County, Wyoming, where Native Americans have more than a little objection to their portrayal not just in books but in movies, television, and artwork. One of the most well-known has been Custer’s Last Stand, a painting destroyed in 1946 but has lived on in Anheuser-Busch ads. Absaroka County Sheriff Walt Longmire has seen his share of warfare and the murky morality of it, most recently after a devastating rescue in Mexico.
After recent traumatic events, the case of a dead sheep should be a relief for Wyoming’s Absaroka County Sheriff Walt Longmire. Instead, the following investigation brings no end of headaches, mostly in the form of wolf conservator Keasik Cheechoo, a labor advocate determined to protect both immigrant workers and the wolf she’s tagged.
For over a year, Absaroka Sheriff Walt Longmire has been battling the ruthless drug lord and Mexican cartel leader Tomas Bidarte. Not only did he hire assassins to kill Walt, Bidarte is responsible for a countless number of deaths that includes that of Walt’s son-in-law. Their skirmishes become outright war when Bidarte kidnaps Walt’s attorney daughter, forcing the normally lackadaisical lawman on an unwavering mission to rescue Cady.
Back in 1972, Walt Longmire was not the wry, easy-going sheriff readers love today. Just two weeks of working under Absaroka County Sheriff Lucian Connelly had Walt questioning his choice of career, despite the pressure of having to support a new wife and upcoming baby. In his first year as president of the Wyoming Sheriff’s Association, Lucian was dragging along his rookie deputy for a sheriff’s junket on the Western Star steam train to Evanston.
A request from friend and new Hulett Officer Corbin Dougherty to investigate a suspicious motorcycle accident has Sheriff Walt Longmire and his best friend Henry Standing Bear out of Absaroka County and in Devils Tower, Wyoming. The neighboring Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and its million attendees already overwhelm Hulett's minuscule police force, and the news that the crash victim was a member of the Tre Tre Nomads motorcycle gang could harken to an impending war between clubs.
Fans of the long-running series featuring Absaroka County Sheriff Walt Longmire return again and again to the novels for the entertaining wit and complex plots that delve into the darkest of crimes of his sparsely populated county. It is in the novellas, though, where Johnson is able to explore Wyoming’s distinct Native American culture and legends that explore the nature of man and his relationship with the land.
