A Review of the Entire Series:
I became interested in knowing more about the Walt Longmire Mysteries after learning that it was going to be made into a TNT series starring Katee Sackhoff, who was in one of my all-time favorite series, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. So I picked up THE COLD DISH and then DEATH WITHOUT COMPANY and then KINDNESS GOES UNPUNISHED and so on through ANOTHER MAN'S MOCASSINS, A DARK HORSE, JUNKYARD DOGS, and on to Craig Johnson's latest offering to the series, HELL IS EMPTY.
I can't express how impressed I am with this series of novels. There are a couple of things to point out.
First, none of these books are written by a formula. About the only thing each novel has in common with the others is that Walt Longmire, the sheriff of Absaroka County, gets battered and beaten in each one. The one ongoing joke, for lack of a better word, in each book is how much physical punishment Walt undergoes. But the novels themselves differ starkly from one to another. Most series reenact the same novel again and again, with only minor alterations from one book to the next. But Craig Johnson clearly refuses to take the easy path, but insists on working hard to create something new each time.
Second, these books are driven by character and are not whodunits. There are mysteries to be solved, but these are not the heart of each book. Most of the novels focus on a series of character portraits of an ensemble cast, but his most recent novel, HELL IS EMPTY focuses on just a couple of characters. But for the most part the books focus on the ensemble. Walt is always front and center because he is the narrator, but we come to know most of the major characters nearly as well, including Victoria "Vic" Moretti, Walt's deputy; his best friend Henry aka "The Cheyenne Nation"; Walt's daughter Cady, the dispatcher Ruby, and many others. The large group of eccentrics making up Walt's world actually reminds me of the town of Cecily, Alaska in NORTHERN EXPOSURE more than it does any other detective or mystery series.
There are a number of other things I really like about the books. I love the literary references. Walt attended USC on a football scholarship, where he was an offensive lineman and majored in Literature (he would have graduated a year before O.J. Simpson arrived and therefore he never blocked for him), and he retains a prodigious knowledge of English language poetry. I'm not a gun guy, but he brings guns into the story in a way that is more fun than usual in such discussions. And you have to love Walt's gentle nature and its contrast with Vic's unrestrained profanity.
The only thing I don't like about the books is the rather stereotyped Indian mysticism. Walt gets visions or prophetic dreams on a regular basis and I generally could have done without all of this. Well, with one exception. I did rather enjoy Virgil in HELL IS EMPTY, his latest book. To give as few spoilers as possible, the book relies heavily on themes and images from Dante's INFERNO, and so it is appropriate that Walt should have a Virgil as his guide, even if Walt himself is well beyond the middle stage of life.
I can't recommend these books strongly enough. I would also strongly recommend reading them in order. That order would be (year of original publication noted - though the books themselves take place in the space of only a year or two):
Cold Dish (2004)
Death Without Company (2006)
Kindness Goes Unpunished (2007)
Another Man's Moccasins (2008)
The Dark Horse (2009)
Junkyard Dogs (2010)
Hell is Empty (2011)
I started off reading these just because of the upcoming television series, but now I love them only for their own sake.
