Any Other Name

June 30, 2014
This action-packed new Walt Longmire adventure has the heroic high-plains sheriff investigating a fellow lawman’s suicide. This requires looking into the late detective’s last case, a cold one involving three county women who went missing some time ago. The trail leads him to Deadwood and the Black Hills of South Dakota. There’s a shoot-out in a blinding snowfall that amidst a large herd of stampeding buffalo, an episode in which two trains race to avoid a head-on collision, and some breathlessly suspenseful moments with Longmire about to be crushed by thousands of pounds of coal. Guidall’s at his avuncular best as Longmire, the novel’s wryly self-deprecating narrator. He also provides an appropriately gravelly croak for the sheriff’s hard-drinking retired boss, Lucian Connally, a deep native American accent for crony Henry Standing Bear, and appropriate assorted masculine voices for the male-heavy cast. He finds a little room in his larynx to squeak out a few respectable female voices, too, leading with undersheriff Vic Moretti. It’s a fast, occasionally funny, non-stop audio thrill ride. A Viking hardcover.

March 24, 2014
A not-quite-cold case preoccupies Walt Longmire in bestseller Johnson’s top-notch 11th mystery featuring the Wyoming sheriff (after 2013’s novella Spirit of Steamboat). Walt reluctantly agrees to help his old boss and mentor, Lucian Connally, investigate the suicide of police detective Gerald Holman in neighboring Campbell County, even though Walt’s official powers stop at the Absaroka County line. Holman apparently shot himself because he had seen too much darkness in his job, but the last cases on Holman’s desk, involving three very different missing women, get Walt thinking. While it looks as if the women just up and left their lives, Walt’s suspicion that the disappearances are connected proves correct. To his peril, he discovers that some people are prepared to go to any lengths to keep the big picture hidden. Meanwhile, Walt awaits the birth of his first grandchild in Philadelphia. Johnson’s hero only gets better—both at solving cases and at hooking readers—with age. 15-city author tour. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents.

April 1, 2014
A favor for an old friend puts Wyoming sheriff Walt Longmire in a tough spot. Longmire is due to fly to Philadelphia for the birth of his daughter Cady's first child. But when his friend and former boss Lucian Connally asks for help, he can't say no. Detective Gerald Holman has committed suicide in a neighboring county whose sheriff is willing to have Longmire investigate at the behest of the widow, who refuses to believe her straight-arrow husband could do such a thing. Since his retirement, Holman had been working on cold cases--some of which aren't so cold, like the disappearance of a bright young woman who was working as an exotic dancer at Dirty Shirley's to replenish her college fund. Looking more closely into the case, Longmire finds that several other women have also gone missing from the area. Though they seem to have nothing in common, he has to consider a possible serial killer. Tracking another of the missing women to Deadwood, S.D., almost gets Longmire and his friend Henry, aka the Cheyenne Nation, killed. That's only Longmire's first brush with death as he looks for answers that someone is willing to kill to keep hidden. Once more, you can count on Longmire (A Serpent's Tooth, 2013, etc.) for action both physical and cerebral, a bit of humor and romance, and a mighty good mystery.

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Starred review from April 1, 2014

Wyoming sheriff Walt Longmire and Lucian Connally, his former boss, travel to a neighboring county to look into the suicide of Det. Gerald Holman. The detective was a longtime friend of Connally, and his death raised many questions; Walt is the best person to find the solutions. Time becomes an issue for Walt, not only in tracing the clues of Holman's last case involving missing women, but also in trying to get to Philadelphia in time for the birth of his first grandchild. In this 11th series installment (after Spirit of Steamboat), Longmire displays his usual down-to-earth charm and dogged determination asking questions of the local sheriff, his sister who owns the local strip club, a lonely clerk whose post office is facing eminent closure, and Holman's wife and daughter, who seem to know more than they are telling. Walt grasps the connection between the vanished women and Holman's death, and not even a herd of bison in Custer State Park can stop him. VERDICT Another well-crafted story from Johnson, filled with endearing characters and nonstop action that will appeal to series fans and readers of other Western mystery authors such as C. J. Box. [See Prepub Alert, 1/6/14; 15-city author tour.]--Patricia Ann Owens, formerly with Illinois Eastern Community Colls., Mt. Carmel

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2014
Wyoming sheriff Walt Longmire's eleventh case takes him out of his jurisdiction to Campbell County, near South Dakota. He's investigating a lawman's suicide as a favor to his friend, the crusty Lucian Connally, who's along for the ride. Walt may be away from home, but when undersheriff and love interest Victoria Moretti and old friend Henry Standing Bear show up, he may as well have brought Absaroka County with him. Many of the elements here will seem familiar from previous novels, from the change of location (The Dark Horse), to the key role played by a vintage sidearm (The Cold Dish), to the touch of supernatural and visit from Walt's spirit guide (Hell Is Empty), to the set piece in a snowstorm (take your pick). But while Johnson might be coasting just a little, all that means is that new readers referred by the popular TV show Longmire (the books have been appropriately rebranded) might be better served by starting at the beginning. Those who have followed the series all along will find no reason to stop now.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)