The Cold Dish: A Walt Longmire Mystery (Walt Longmire Mysteries) [Kindle Edition]

Craig Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Introducing Wyoming’s Sheriff Walt Longmire in this riveting novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Hell Is Empty and As the Crow Flies, the first in the Walt Longmire Mystery Series, the basis for LONGMIRE, the hit A&E original drama series
 
Fans of Ace Atkins, Nevada Barr and Robert B. Parker will love this outstanding first novel, in which New York Times bestselling author Craig Johnson introduces Sheriff Walt Longmire of Wyoming’s Absaroka County. Johnson draws on his deep attachment to the American West to produce a literary mystery of stunning authenticity, and full of memorable characters. After twenty-five years as sheriff of Absaroka County, Walt Longmire’s hopes of finishing out his tenure in peace are dashed when Cody Pritchard is found dead near the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. Two years earlier, Cody has been one of four high school boys given suspended sentences for raping a local Cheyenne girl. Somebody, it would seem, is seeking vengeance, and Longmire might be the only thing standing between the three remaining boys and a Sharps .45-70 rifle.
 
With lifelong friend Henry Standing Bear, Deputy Victoria Moretti, and a cast of characters both tragic and humorous enough to fill in the vast emptiness of the high plains, Walt Longmire attempts to see that revenge, a dish best served cold, is never served at all.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A strong sense of place, a credible plot and deft dialogue lift Johnson's good-humored debut novel, the first of a new series, set in Bighorn Mountain country. Walt Longmire, the veteran sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyo., usually has little to do on his patrols. When Cody Pritchard is found shot to death near the Cheyenne reservation, everyone, including Deputy Victoria Moretti, a transplanted Philadelphian, believes he died in an accident. But two years earlier, Cody was one of four high schoolers convicted of raping a young Native American girl. All were given suspended sentences, and when another of the four turns up dead, it appears that someone is out for revenge. As fear mounts, Sheriff Longmire feels tension in the air between the white population and the Native American community, and he's not pleased to think that his lifelong friend, Henry Standing Bear, might be directly involved in the murders. While the prose could stand tautening at times simply to up the suspense, Johnson has made an assured start that should appeal to a wide range of mystery fans.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine

The Cold Dish, a multilayered whodunit mystery, stands out in its genre. Shades of racism, mysticism, and revenge give the novel nuance; dead-on dialogue, good-natured humor, and flesh-and-blood characters, including the foul-mouthed deputy Victorian "Vic" Moretti, give it life. Johnson, who lives in Ucross, Wyoming, knows the Western landscape well, and creates stunning and violent scenes (including a raging blizzard) of the Rocky Mountains. Only The Philadelphia Inquirer faulted the novel’s roughness and comparatively immature prose. The other critics look forward to reading more from Johnson’s powerful voice and reconnecting with his eccentric mélange of characters.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 722 KB
• Print Length: 380 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0670033693
• Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint edition (December 29, 2004)
• Sold by: Penguin Publishing
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0023SDPS6
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,833 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

101 of 106 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvellous - 6 stars at the least! May 11, 2005

By Andre 2015

Format:Hardcover

In Wyoming where the endless beauty of nature gives you the chance to let your spirit flow freely, things take time - and that is good.
Craig Johnson uses that time to paint a wonderful picture of the setting and to introduce us to a cast of characters any reader would dream of. Although they say it's a mystery - and they're right - there is also so much more. It's a tale about the people, their stories and the magical countryside.
True, other writers have written about this part of the world, but when Craig Johnson paints the story, you can feel the wind blow and even hear the snowflakes fall. Every detail that is mentioned helps you sense the atmosphere and lets you create your own picture in your head without ever being overdone.
It is not one of those fast who-dun-it mysteries that keep you chasing after the clues. But that doesn't mean you'll lose your patience - the storyline is much too good for that.
Sherif Walt Longmire of Absaroka County, together with his friend Henry Standing Bear and Deputy Victoria Moretti must solve the murder of Cody Pritchard, one of four high school boys who, a couple of years earlier had been convicted of brutally raping Melissa, a young Cheyenne girl. Walt never got over the horrible crime, but now it may be only him left standing between the other three boys and the bullets.
It's fiction at its best and it also happens to be a tremendously well written mystery you wouldn't want to end. And when it does you're probably going to start all over right away. A strong tale with great characters you won't forget.

46 of 48 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Darn Palatable April 19, 2006

By JAMES AGNEW

Format:Paperback

Being in the book business, I'm always on the lookout for the next big thing, the kind of author with so much talent and drive that anyone who buys one of their works will be back the next day to buy the rest. I've seen writers like Lee Child and Michael Connelly go from buzz to best seller, and I love that brief window of opportunity when I can hand sell a relatively unknown author I know will knock people out.

Craig Johnson is a new voice that his publisher Penguin believes can become the next Hillerman. Both Craig and Penguin have sent our bookshop posters, postcards and various promotional items (word to the wise - chocolate and money work best) in order to bring him to the attention of our customers. Johnson's protagonist is Walt Longmire, an aging, small town sheriff in Wyoming. (The aging thing is always a poignant touch, but it can get awkward when it's the starting point in a continuing series - those Vietnam vets aren't going to be able to keep punching people out for very much longer.) Walt's rather pedestrian duties are suddenly enlivened by the death of a young man who had been involved in the gang rape of a Native American girl. When a second guilty party is also killed it becomes apparent that the first death was no accident, and unless the crimes are solved the town could explode.

Longmire is a likeable, gruff and very decent character, a man just emerging from mourning the death of his long time wife, and the reader is drawn effortlessly into his world. Johnson skillfully immerses the reader in the rhythms and mores of the West, smoothly integrating history and folklore into the evocative landscape. Like Hillerman, he captures the dangerous beauty of the area as well as the equally dangerous tensions between the Native Americans and the rest of the community.

I found the middle of the book less compelling, however. Small town policing can get pretty tedious at times, and it's challenging to present that in a way that's true to life yet maintains the pace of the book, a challenge that Johnson's not always up to. I also found some of the characters like the-pithy-member-of-a-minority-best-friend and the-beautiful-rich-woman-known-in-childhood-from-the-other-side-of-the-class-divide to be a little stock.

But the sting is in the tail, as they say, and for me Johnson's ending more than redeemed any reservations I may have had, and in fact turned some of them on their head. He delivers the kind of kick ass, gut wrenching, truly surprising resolution that not too many writers can pull off these days, and it immediately made me yearn for Death Without Company, the next book in the series. Craig Johnson may not be the next big thing, but he'll definitely do until it comes along.

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars 'The Cold Dish' is a gem of a first novel June 27, 2006

By C. Palmer

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Discovering a wonderful new author is a special treat for readers, and Craig Johnson's 'The Cold Dish' is especially delicious. Set in a fictional small town in northern Wyoming and featuring grieving, 50-something widower Sheriff Walt Longmire, the book is a beautifully crafted mystery that will hold your attention from the first page. A marvelous supporting cast of eccentric locals including Longmire's best friend, Henry Standing Bear, both assist and hinder the Sheriff as he makes his way through a maze of suspects to solve a grisy series of murders. By the last chapter of this terrific first novel, the reader will feel that he, too, knows the starkly beautiful country at the foot of the Big Horn mountains. A guaranteed great read!

More About the Author

Craig Johnson has received both critical and popular praise for his novels The Cold Dish, Death Without Company, Kindness Goes Unpunished, Another Man's Moccasins and The Dark Horse. All five novels have been made selections by the Independent Booksellers Association, and The Cold Dish was a DILYS Award Finalist and was translated into French in 2009 as Little Bird and was just named one of the top ten mysteries of the year by Lire magazine and won the Prix du Roman Noir as the best mystery novel translated into French for 2010.

Death Without Company was selected by Booklist as one of the top-ten mysteries of 2006, won the Wyoming Historical Society's fiction book of the year. The short story, Old Indian Trick, won the Tony Hillerman Mystery Short Story Award and appeared in Cowboys & Indians Magazine.

Kindness Goes Unpunished, the third in the Walt Longmire series, was number 38 on the American Bookseller's Association's hardcover best seller list.

Another Man's Moccasins, was the recipient of Western Writer's of America's Spur Award as Novel of the Year and the Mountains and Plains Book of the Year.

The Dark Horse, the fifth in the series has garnered starred reviews by all four prepublication review services, one of the only novels to receive that honor and was named by Publisher's Weekly as one of the top one hundred books of the year.

Craig lives with his wife Judy on their ranch in Ucross, Wyoming, population 25.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#60 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery

#80 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Mystery

#60 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery

#80 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Mystery