(2009)Walt tries to help a women accused of killing her husband and finds that the husband has faked his death and convinced her she had killed him, when in fact he had killed his brother and then tried to hide the body in a fire.KIRKUS REVIEWThe Sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyo., follows a hunch to free an allegedly self-made widow.Though his jail is housing confessed killer Mary Barsad, Walt Longmire has a feeling the horse-loving lady is innocent. Prescription drugs found in her system have left her with little appetite and even less ability to focus on the here and now. Posing as an insurance adjuster, Walt goes to the Powder River country to sniff around. His welcome is less than warm. On the night of the murder, Wade Barsad's ranch house and barn were destroyed by fire, along with his wife's prize cutting horses¥all except for Wahoo Sue, Mary's favorite, whom Barsad claimed to have taken out and shot. The long list of people happy to see Wade dead includes his hired hand Hershel Vanskike, whose hopes of fortune rest in an antique rifle, and just about everybody else in a three-county area. When Walt rents a room in Absalom, only a Guatemalan bartender and her half-Cheyenne son Benjamin are willing to talk to him. Though he tries to keep a low profile, Walt gets pushed into fighting Cliff Cly, king of the local Friday night fights. It turns out that Barsad was in the witness protection program and had a lot more enemies than the locals he'd antagonized. After a trip with Hershel and Benjamin to Twentymile Butte shows Cly in a new light, only a meeting with Wahoo Sue saves Walt from death.

I didn't know it at the start of the year but it looks like one of my 2017 reading goals is knocking out the whole Walt Longmire mystery series.

A friend described this series as "comfort reading. You pick one up and you know what you’re going to get." She was exactly right.

Solid western mystery.


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3.5 stars ( )

Probably the worst one so far (I'm now finishing up #7).

This series is really fun to read; the story is interesting, but the characters are more so. I loved the Longmire TV series, but the books are probably better although the show influenced my reading because I think of the actors when I read the books.

There were so many fun characters in this book that I had trouble keeping up with them. We have the usual Walt and Vic, a perfect pair who balance each other well, Henry Standing Bear who seems to somehow turn up when he's needed but least expected. But there were many non-regulars that added so much. The dry humor that is never overdone is pretty constant. It all makes me wish I lived a little further east (but not too much further). But I probably wouldn't last long; I'm sure it's not as ideal as it sometimes seems. ( )