Walt Longmire, Book 9.5

So, apparently, Johnson writes Longmire books for the fun of it. Sometimes they are short stories which are released, say, around every Christmas time, to be later gathered into a compendium for those who either missed the individual stories, or want to have them all in one place. And sometimes, when he starts writing a short story, it just sorta gets away from him. Or so, this is what he said when explaining the existence of the Spirit of Steamboat, a half-sized, not mystery, Walt Longmire book.

I have to say, I rather liked this book because it wasn't a mystery. It was a Walt Longmire adventure, which is great in its own right. But better than that, this book had the elements of suspense that, in this case, I would argue, were stronger than in the mystery books. And suspense in a good sense, too, the OMG OMG OMG KEEP READING READ FASTER sort of way that I like, not the torturous "omg what the f--- is going on I can't read this any more" sort of discomfort way that causes me to skip to the end of the book sort of way that I hate.

I was amused when Johnson had Walt hear the drums in the rotors and remark on them, given that Walt was surprised to hear the drums in the first of the Longmire series. So, either he didn't hear any drums in the intervening 22 years, or all the crazy antics between this book and book one of the series caused amnesia in the man. Both are plausible, given how much physical abuse Longmire takes when doing The Right Thing™.

Totally recommended.

Walt Longmire, Book 9

Okay, I was somewhat excited to be reading a Walt Longmire book that didn't start off with some murder investigation. I mean, there are only so many deaths you can have in a small county before everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, notices and gets the fuck out of there. Okay, yes, some of the books were about escaped convicts, but even that resulted in a lot of death. And one particular story had only a stolen horse.

This one, the main plot premise doesn't involve the investigation into a death. Hot damn.

Once again, Johnson doesn't disappoint with a fast paced modern day, small down, western mystery. The clues were a little too obvious in this book as to what was going on, which, of course, leads the reader to think, COME ON, DON'T BE DUMB, at the characters. Of course, in Johnson style, Longmire has figured out what's going on, and it just playing along until the right time to expose his knowledge.

I really wish I would learn the art of playing along.

I enjoyed this book. I'm nearing the end of the written Longmire books, as there are only two left. I guess I'll have to wait for Johnson to write more. At least he doesn't write at GRRM pace. Gah, would suck.