Library's review
As if all that wasn't enough, Walt is also still smarting from a two-year-old case in which a quartet of white teenage boys received a suspended sentence after raping a developmentally disabled Native American girl. When one of the boys is found shot to death, Walt has to consider whether the murder is a form of vigilante justice, and whether the rest of the perpetrators are also in danger.
This book is the first in Johnson's wildly popular series, which spawned a television series that recently wrapped up a seven-season run. It suffers from the common series-opener problem of allowing the establishment of the scene and characters to get a bit in the way of the storytelling, but it's still compelling in its treatment of its Native American characters and culture (the most prominent of whom, Henry Standing Bear, would bristle at the term and insist that he is an Indian). It takes a broadminded view of native spirituality that leaves room for multiple interpretations.
I remember when I read this for the first time in 2015 that Walt's depressive personality felt oppressive, and I hoped it would lift as the series continued. It didn't seem quite as overwhelming this time around, perhaps because having read the rest of the series I know now that Walt does recover his emotional equilibrium. It was also a good reminder that the casting for the television series was not necessarily true to the books. Henry is a tall, beefy man in the books, not the miniaturized version presented by Lou Diamond Phillips. And after watching Katee Sackhoff portray deputy Victoria Moretti as a wiry blonde, it was a revelation to rediscover that the book Vic is an olive-skinned, curvy Italian. She's just as direct and delightfully profane, thankfully.
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Fiction. Literature. Mystery. Western. HTML: Introducing Wyoming�??s Sheriff Walt Longmire in this riveting first Longmire novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Land of WolvesFans 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… (more)