Death Without Company

Men Reading Books has already reviewed seven of the 12 books in this Walt Longmire series by Craig Johnson, but somehow we missed the second one, Death Without Company. This is compelling drama about excellent characters. In this story, there has been death by poisoning of an old woman who lives in the same retirement home as Absaroka County's former sheriff, Lucian Connally. He's the one who reports this death as a murder and insists on an investigation. But, it turns out Lucian was once married to this woman, at least for a few hours, and he was withholding a lot of information about her from the current sheriff, Walk Longmire. Then, more deaths follow.

In addition to a gripping plot in which Johnson reveals just the right amount of information at the right time, what makes this special is the character development and ethnic information about various Indian tribes, the Basques, and the Caucasians, all of whom inhabit the area. It’s a story about land, mineral rights, family, greed, and human relationships. Johnson uses his usual cast of characters, Walt, his daughter Cady, best buddy Henry Standing Bear, Deputy Vic Moretti, Deputy Ferg, Lucian, and Ruby. If you like murder mysteries set in the west, this series is as good as it gets.