Spirit of Steamboat

August 12, 2013
Bestseller Johnson (A Serpent’s Tooth) delivers a nail-biter with this seasonal Walt Longmire novella. On a snowy Christmas Eve, while reading A Christmas Carol, the Wyoming sheriff receives an unexpected visitor: a part-Japanese young woman who says she needs to see Walt’s predecessor as sheriff, Lucian Connally, a WWII vet who flew in the Doolittle raid on Tokyo in 1942 and is now in a rest home. Flashback to December 24, 1988. A girl seriously injured in a traffic accident has to get to Denver fast for treatment, but a blizzard makes flying her there hazardous. Furthermore, the only plane available is an antique B-25, named Steamboat after the bucking bronco on Wyoming’s license plate, and the only pilot who can fly Steamboat is Lucian. Soon, the two lawmen, their team, and the patient are aloft, fighting the weather and a host of mechanical problems. While the outcome is never in doubt, the woman’s meeting with Lucian in the present day holds more than one surprise. 5-city author tour. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents.

Starred review from September 1, 2013
The day before Christmas finds Sheriff Walt Longmire of Absaroka County, Wyo., at loose ends, until a ghost from the past brings back long-forgotten memories. Johnson's Walt Longmire mysteries are the basis for an A&E drama series. When a young woman walks into Walt's office and asks about his predecessor, Walt can't recall meeting her. But he's willing to take her out to the assisted living facility where irascible former sheriff Lucian Connally is well into a bottle of bourbon. Lucian claims not to remember her either until she says "Steamboat," a word that instantly transports them all back to the same day in 1988. A bad accident has left only one badly burned survivor, a young girl who will surely die unless she can be transported to Denver. A Life Flight helicopter has picked her up, but a vicious storm forces it to land at the local airport, where everyone says there are no planes that can make it to Denver in such a storm. Walt has a different idea. He drags Lucian away from a poker game and out to the airport, where he's introduced to Steamboat, a rickety World War II bomber named after a famous bucking horse, very similar to the bomber Lucian flew over Japan. Neither the EMT nor the helicopter pilot will risk their lives. So Lucian, Walt, the local doctor, a female pilot with very little experience on large aircraft, the child, Amaterasu, and her grandmother take off on a flight that has little chance of success. Unlike Walt's usual adventures (A Serpent's Tooth, 2013, etc.), this novella shuns mystery for a wild and dangerous adventure that will leave you both touched and breathless.

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October 15, 2013

This is Johnson's tenth book (after A Serpent's Tooth) to feature Wyoming sheriff Walt Longmire, who is also the basis for the TV show Longmire. Not so much a mystery as the other series titles, this holiday novella is a suspenseful adventure story that flashes back to the Christmas Eve shortly after Longmire is elected sheriff. A terrible snowstorm is raging, and Longmire has to find a way to get a young car accident victim to the Denver Children's Hospital. Roads are closed, and the Medevac helicopter can't fly in this weather either. An old World War II bomber plane called Steamboat and Lucian Connally, the former sheriff, are the girl's only hope for survival. VERDICT Series fans along with adventure and Western readers will raptly devour the details of the treacherous flight and revel in the history of the bomber and the bucking horse that inspired its name.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2013
Set on Christmas Evea strong clue that it started life as one of the author's annual holiday short storiesthis entertaining novella offers the earliest glimpse yet of Walt Longmire's tenure as sheriff of Wyoming's Absaroka County. Longmire is reading Dickens in his office when an unexpected visitor arrives bearing a mysterious gift, triggering memories of an eventful night long past . . . when, with a huge storm blowing in and the highways closed, the only way to transport a burn victim to the hospital in Denver was via a WWII bomber gathering dust in the hangar of Durant's tiny airport. The only person who could fly it? Lucian Connally, Longmire's crusty predecessor. Johnson is a born storyteller, and he spins this old-fashioned adventure tale deftly: everything that can go wrong does, and problems are solved by men who set their jaws and do what needs to be done. As always with these detours, it's fun to see the characters' histories come to life. An extremely pleasant present for fans of this popular series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)