Tooth and Claw by Craig Johnson

While this is, as always, about Walt Longmire, the flawed yet capable Wyoming Sheriff, this is a novella adding to Walt's backstory.

Walt and the Navajo Nation (Henry Standing Bear) are fresh out of the Army looking for what's next after their time in Vietnam. Walt takes a security job for an energy/research company way the hell north on Alaska's north coast. With nothing on his plate, Henry ventures up north to visit Walt. 

Walt's job, when it comes to security, is pretty calm despite the weather. The research part of the business is a small group doing polar ice research for the government. The schedule has a team heading out from home base to get some ice core samples ahead of a predicted storm. And a storm that far north isn't to be trifled with. A specially outfitted plane is filled up with the needed equipment and survival gear (just in case . . . wink wink) along with a shooter experienced with polar bear behavior, Walt has to go and Henry decides to tag along. Lots of chatter on the flight in about so-called ghost ships. Abandoned ships frozen in the ice that aimlessly drift about as the ice shifts, cracks, or melts only to be refrozen at a new and distant location. One in particular was recently seen in the general area of the team's destination. But the intensity of the storm, it's unlikely to be seen through the blowing snow that reduces vision to multiple of arm length.

The storm comes in faster and more fierce than predicted and they have to land short of their destination (a small research shack). The plane carries a polar-capable snow cat. The pilots hunker down on the plane and the rest board the snow cat and head out . . . 

. . . until they encounter a polar bear in their path. A very hungry, very big, and very aggressive polar bear. A bear big enough to topple a snow cat and send the team running for their lives. Their good fortune sends them toward a ghost ship. And while that should provide some shelter, there's evidence that the bear is familiar with the ship. The landscape may be home to the bear, but so is this ship.

What plays out is a cat-mouse game between the bear and the research team. The team is left with limited supplies, ammunition and anything else that might help them ward off the bear. Daylight is sparse so much of the game plays in near total darkness with battery powered lanterns slowing dying out and the team is being stalked on the bear's home turf.

This is the 2nd or 3rd Longmire novella that Johnson has published all of which add to the history of the man who would become a legendary sheriff in Wyoming. The time line is brief, about 36-48 hrs at best with Walt and Henry leading the team's defensive despite being out of their element. It's a suspenseful and absorbing adventure, one that reveals the story behind a talisman Henry wears around his neck into adulthood.  

This 2024 release, a 6"x9" book of under 200 pages. Load up the fireplace, put your feet up and read it in a day/weekend. Beats shoveling snow or shivering in the latest polar vortex

East Coast Don