Return To Sender by Craig Johnson

Return to Sender is Craig Johnson's 21st Longmire mystery . . . dont' mess with a good thing. Full Disclosure: Johnson is firmly entrenched in my power rotation and I'm not likely to find anything at fault in the stories that come from his imagination.

This outing is quite the lively mystery set, per usual, in the rugged Wyoming wilderness. This time, Sheriff Longmire is called out by a relative of Walt's late wife to travel from Absaroka County to south central Wyoming . The relative is a postal inspector for the state but he needs Walt's anonymity in this region to sort of go undercover to investigate the disappearance of Blair McGowan, a postal worker responsible for the longest rural mail route in the United States that runs over three hundred miles across, around, and through the desolate Red Desert.

Walt poses as McGowan's replacement mail carrier, though the sheriff’s distinctive stature (six-foot-five) kind of undermines any real attempt at being secretive. Plus he does have a bit of a state wide reputation. No matter. Walt pursues this case, like all cases, earnestly by retracing McGowan’s route in her battered 1968 Travelall. On this lonely circuit, Walk is accompanied by Dog, his huge, but undeniably endearing canine companion. Their journey is littered with quirky encounters with the locals, curious clues left under painted rocks, confrontations with Blair’s odd/loser boyfriend and, most astonishingly, a cult, led by a has-been wannabe TV actor, hiding in the desert. Obviously, this cult quickly becomes the center of Walt's interest.

The book shows us just how comfortable Johnson and Longmire have become with each other. The narrative showcases Johnson’s trademark blend of wry humor, the colorful and dangerous Wyoming desert wrapped around a clever tale dotted with unrelenting suspense. Given the expanse of the Red Desert, Walt has to come to grips with modern technology - he gets his first cell phone. OK, an old flip phone - that he painstakingly attempts to learn. His 'relationship' with technology shows the classic Longmire charm and his stubborn, old-school grit that we devotees have grown to relish over twenty-one novels. While the main characters of the book really are Walt and Dog, we are still treated to the usual suspects in Walt's circle of support: his under-sheriff (and fiance) Vic Moretti, best friend Henry Standing Bear, secretary Ruby, the former sheriff Lucian Connally, and daughter Kady all make, for the purposes of this story, cameo appearances. The focus remains on Walt’s solitary investigation and Dog’s devoted assistance.

One of Johnson's gifts is his skill at presenting a sense of place. The desert's beauty as well as its dangers. And within this beautiful, if harsh, place Walt has to deal with  fistfights, gun play, and an adrenaline-charged chase across the desert. Overall, Return to Sender is another standout entry for rookie and legacy fans alike, brimming with tension, heart, and the colorful cast that keeps us coming back to for our annual visits into Longmire’s world.

The Cormorant Hunt by Michael Idov

This will be short cuz if I went too far with the plotline, I'd be the King of Spoilers. 

The Cormorant Hunt (a continuation of Idov's The Collaborators, that I see I forgot to post a review) is an electrifying, character-driven spy thriller thick with contemporary geopolitics, intrigue, and razor-sharp wit. The story centers around a disgraced CIA officer Ari Falk, exiled in the Republic of Georgia after exposing a massive conspiracy via what might be considered to be a WikiLeaks kind of disclosure. 

But the CIA hasn't forgetten (or forgiven) Falk for his role in the lead of trade secrets. The new Deputy Director of Cover Operations, Asha Tamaskar, has a plan for Ari . . . assuming she can find him. Now that the intelligence community knows that Falk is on the outs with the CIA, he might just be what the other side might be able to use, assuming he could be turned. And that's just what Tamaskar wants to do. She wants Falk to ingratiated himself in a shadowy organization bent on drilling some holes in the western capitalistic way of life. They are well funded and organized with tentacles crossing multiple borders, nationalities, and ways of life. If Falk can weasel his way in, the CIA could gain vital intel on how to disrupt plans and, with any luck, break up this cabal. The front man is Felix Burnham, Russian born but grew up in the US to the point of working in the CIA before dropping off the grid. Means Falk, who is used to being the one doing the recruiting of foreign, now has to become the one being recruited, this time by a skilled manipulator. 

As with any double agent, Falk struggles with being both a hero and a traitor, especially when alliances are always shifting. Dangerous new intelligence arises around most every corner. This complex covert assignment pulls Ari into a complex labyrinth of extremist groups and shadowy operatives across Europe as he is vetted at every stop. Burnham is a chilling, narcissistic antagonist with radical intentions to threaten global security and stability. Idov’s narrative moves briskly from Tbilisi to Prague and Russia taking us to seemingly authentic settings and pulse-pounding action; prepare to be constantly guessing.

Idov treats the reader to smart dialogue and moral ambiguity with real-world consequences, The Cormorant Hunt is quite the page-turner challenging us with the cost of loyalty and betrayal in a fractured world. If you like LeCarre and other modern storytellers of espionage, this is a story just for you.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance review copy. Publication date is Jan 27, 2026 so be patient. It's worth the wait

  

ECD 

Not My Type: One Woman vs. A President

 Not My Type are the words Donald J. Trump used in his response to looking at a photo of E. Jean Carroll, and then she used those same words as her book title as she provided the details of her life and the two trials that were held, the first for sexual abuse and defamation, the second trial for the same. Her subtitle is One Woman vs. A President. Of course, we know now that Trump lost both of those trials and was ordered to pay Ms. Carroll $83.3 million. Now, Trump hast lost his appeal and it is likely that this legal matter will probably be appealed to the Supreme Court. Although Ms. Carroll has yet to collect a single penny, the unpaid penalty is accruing 9% interest on a daily basis which apparently amounts to about $100,000 per day. Trump’s current debt to her stands at over $100,000,000. 

There is so much to this book that I did not expect. Ms. Carroll has been a gifted writer throughout her adult life, and she readily applied her skills to these events. I liked the organization of the book as she told her life story, and described the personalities of and physical descriptions of the primary players in this ongoing legal drama. I’ve read no clearer evidence of Trump being an outrageous liar. I’ve come away with an admiration of the legal knowledge and skill by Robbie Kaplan and her team, and the inadequacy of Trump’s legal team. Mostly, I’ve come away with admiration for Ms. Carroll and her ability to stand up to Trump under unbelievable pressure. It is my opinion that Trump is hampered in choosing competent people to surround him as the result of his narcissistic, sociopathic, and borderline personality disorder.

 

Carroll tells a very good story. I literally could not put this book down.

The Short Stories of Ernest Hemmingway

 I picked up The Short Stories of Ernest Hemmingway because I wanted to read a couple short stories he had written about his time in East Africa. It was Hemmingway’s sons Patrick and Sean who compiled the stories and published them in 2017. Ernest wrote “The Art of the Short Story” in 1959 from Malaga, Spain where he was staying at the time.

I must write that I’ve never been a big fan of Hemmingway although I was greatly enamored by The Old Man and the Sea, but his other novels just left me unimpressed. The two short stories that drew my attention were The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber and The Snows of Kilimanjaro. Those stories were suggested by my brother-in-law, a literature professor emeritus. Hemmingway certainly captured the dysfunctional and unhappy marriage of the Macombers. While the setting was in East Africa and hunting game was an important part of the action, I was left feeling quite flat after the story ended. The second short story just seemed dated and rather uninteresting in a current day light.

Heroes, the Greek Myths Reimagined

Heroes, the Greek Myths Reimagined by Stephen Fry is the second in a four-book set. I raved about the first book, Mythos, and I’m obviously not alone in my appreciate for Fry’s work. There had been a 14-week wait for access to that audiobook on the Libby app. While Mythos covers the whole beginning of the Greek mythologies, Heroes is a wonderful follow-up as Fry covers the stories of Perseus, Jason, Atalanta, Theseus, and Heracles (and more). While these stories have been told and retold for so long, Fry’s audiobook is done with the grandeur that such heroes deserve. He makes the stories seem bold and new. It’s where so many of our modern heroic acts were really told for the first time. I’m in love with this work, and now I’m waiting for my app Libby to bring me the third book, The Odyssey which I’ve read countless times. The Odyssey is perhaps, my favorite story, my favorite novel of all.

Redwind Security CEO, a Colonel Dawson, summons his top operative, Dane Winter, regarding Winter's upcoming assignment. Another protection gig, this one in Mexico. A retail magnate, Gilberto Sanchez, is planning a run for governor of the (fictitious) Mexican state of Tlapetla. He's hosting a mega fund raiser for all the monied residents and business officials of the state at his home in San Yetaxa. His political platform is based on shutting down one of Mexico's cartels whose home base in in Tlapetla.


A team of 5 are assigned to support Winter. His research uncovers the layout of Sanchez's home. Big, pretentious, in the hills overlooking the city. Limited access to and from the home, local security on site so Redwind will be providing overwatch and backup if needed. Seems like straight forward duty. Discussions on how one might assault the home, duty assignments finalized to each of the team, and they are off to Mexico.

The party will be massive. Dozens upon dozens of limos, hired security, and hundreds of invited guests. If they all open their checkbooks, Sanchez's war chest  should be deep enough to propel him to election success.

The team takes up their positions right about the time an extremely large assault on the compound begins. The cartel has decided that a Gov. Sanchez wouldn't be good for business. The foundation of Winter's security plans is based around a safe and rapid evac of the guest in the event of attack. The plan works like a charm. All the guest escape safely, but dozens of Sanchez's local security guards are gunned down . . . including Winter's entire team, all 5 of 'em. 

Winter is wounded but manages to crawl out. One of the caterers is Maria, a cafe waitress that the team met upon arrival. In the confusion, she drags Winter off the property, patches him up the best she can, and hides him in her home where her MD-brother is enlisted to make sure he survives. 

As Winter heals, he replays the events at the party for clues to what went wrong. Obviously the cartel carried out the attack. But Winter is more interested in the cartel's boss, an Alfonso Berrera and a mysterious 'benefactor' who is the ultimate puller of strings known only as El Maestro. Winter isn't one to settle for just killing the foot soldiers, he wants Berrera and El Maestro and he wants to destroy their drug production processes and facilities. He is reminded by police and Maria that law enforcement has failed for years to take down the cartel, so just how does he think that he, a single man, can do what the cops can't. 

And here is where Winter goes full Jack Reacher on Mexico. Author Cogley develops a complicated and treacherous plan for Winter to go after the Cartel bosses, destroy a meth lab the size of an airplane hanger, maintain a working relationship with a local detective, find out why he has been targeted, keep Maria and her brother safe without getting himself torn to shreds by assigned assassins, cartel thugs, disloyal local cops.  

And it's a good, if a bit adventurous and audacious execution of an entire cartel in the Mexican desert. We do learn more about Winter's back story from his days as a squad Captain in the Marines in Afghanistan, the loss of men in his command and his girlfriend/almost fiance to get some sense of his motivation behind the use of his killing skills when wronged. Of course there are the requisite twists to the plot as Winter uncovers the layers of corruption involved. 

Cogley has penned about a half dozen thrillers, notably a 5-book Adam Knight series. If I read the book blurb, it looks like this is the first in  Dane Winter series. If the others are as rough and tumble as this, Cogley might be worth the effort. The one thing that kinda irked me is that the setting is Mexico, but (as written), everyone - Maria, brother, the detective, the cartel leaders, the assassins, a cafe cook and more - all speak English. Only once do I recall Winter eavesdropping on a Spanish conversation.  Yeah, I get it, but still, make it seem like the story involves a language barrier.

ECD 

A Traveller's History of Egypt

 Long in advance of actually traveling there, I chose A Traveller’s History of Egypt by Harry Ades as being a way to prepare myself for the incredible and very long history of Egypt. It did take me some months to plow through the material which is written in a timeline as would be any good history textbook. It begins before history was recorded to the present time. I found myself reading a couple chapters, then putting it down for other reading material, and picking it up again. I just finished the last page when I’m only a week from beginning my journey. Ades book was first published in 2007, and it is a comprehensive yet concise history of the country.

 

The book included prehistoric times reaching back to 33,000,000 BCE. (BCE stands for “before the common era,” and is an accepted way of dating things. Much of the non-Christian world objects to AD and BC. AD refers to Anno Domini, “in the year of the Lord” and BC is simply “before Christ.” The BCE/CE system avoids a religious designation and CE simply refers to the “common era.” 1 CE would refer to what was probably Christ’s fourth or fifth year of life.)

 

It was around 3000 BCE that the rules of Upper Egypt took control of Lower Egypt, but how that occurred remains mostly unknown. It was about that same time that the first evidence of writing was found. It was over the next millennium that writing really developed and Egypt experienced its first dynastic period. Ades catalogued the various rules of Egypt, noting there were 31 dynasties. The 31^st dynasty of Alexander the Great was the beginning of the Ptolemaic period in 332 BCE. The Roman Period lasted from 30 BCE under Augustus to 395 CE, the last Roman emperor having been Theodosius I. (It was in 401CE that the Visigoths sacked Rome.) The author took the reader through the Byzantine Period followed by the Arab Period, the Malmuk Period, and the Ottoman Period which ended with World War I in 1914. There was also a French Occupation by Napolean from 1798 to 1801, the Dynasty of Muhammad Ali from 1805 to 1953. The British Occupation began in 1883 and lasted until 1953 when Egypt was declared a republic. Ades continued the political history of the county under Nasser, Sadat and finally Mubarak who was in office in 2007 time this book was published.

 

Simply put, if you’re interested in an excellent history of Egypt, this is the book for you.