Another Man’s Moccasins by Craig Johnson

Walt Longmire is sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming. Daughter Cady is recovering from something that happened in Philly (in an earlier book). Henry Standing Bear is his lifelong friend, full blood Cheyenne, Vietnam war buddy, current confidant, and owner of the Red Pony Bar and Grill. Vic (short for Victoria) is one of his deputies.

An Asian woman is found dead on the side of the interstate by brother farmers contracted by the state to cut the grass. A quick search of the area uncovers some of her belongings near a culvert under I-25. In the culvert is one of those Army vets who has slipped through the bureaucratic gaps the VA is notorious for – a monumentally huge Crow Indian named Virgil White Buffalo. A brief scuffle (4v1) lands Victor in Longmire’s holding cell so they can try and piece together his history.

A Vietnamese gentleman who represents Children of the Dust, a help group for Asian children dragged into human trafficking, identifies the body as the grand daughter he had been trying to track down.

As one might expect, even on the high plains of Wyoming, things are not as they seem. There’s the itinerant bartender-biker, the entire White Buffalo clan, and most important, ghosts that haunt Walt from his days as a Marine Investigator during the Vietnam war and the death of a local he had grown close to. Not to mention that the wallet of the dead girl contained an old photo of a Vietnamese woman and a young Marine who bears a striking resemblance to Longmire.

If you haven’t been paying attention, the AMC network just finished its 3^rd season of shows based on the Longmire character and Craig Johnson’s books. And I am a fan of the TV show. So I decided after watching every second of each episode it was time for me to go to the source – and glad I did. Easy to read these books and see the actors in your mind’s eye.

First rate books. First rate TV. Won’t go wrong with either. Fans of CJ Box (which all of us here at MRB are signed, sealed, and delivered fans of Joe Pickett) will most likely like the Longmire series (11 books so far). Johnson (of Ucross, Wyoming; population=25) expertly weaves crime with Cheyenne culture, maybe not as well as Hillerman did with the Navaho, but better than most anything I’ve read recently. The TV show is between seasons now. Thank goodness, I have 10 more opportunities to get a Longmire fix.

East Coast Don