{"id":31734,"date":"2023-09-14T10:07:25","date_gmt":"2023-09-14T16:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/craig-johnson-back-with-another-longmire-adventure\/"},"modified":"2023-09-14T16:07:25","modified_gmt":"2023-09-14T16:07:25","slug":"craig-johnson-back-with-another-longmire-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/craig-johnson-back-with-another-longmire-adventure\/","title":{"rendered":"Craig Johnson back with another \u2018Longmire\u2019 adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"(Courtesy
(Courtesy of Craig Johnson)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe Longmire Defense,\u201d by Craig Johnson is quite the journey into the life and times of Walt Longmire, sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming. Fans of the Longmire series will be thrilled with Johnson\u2019s 19th outing with Walt, Henry Standing Bear, daughter Cady and the rest of the gang.<\/p>\n

It is May, and Walt is recovering from the effects of his adventure in 2022\u2019s \u201cHell And Back.\u201d Walt\u2019s rest is disturbed when Vic Moretti, Walt\u2019s undersheriff, arrives at his cabin to encourage him to get back to doing \u201csheriffy things\u201d \u2013 such as helping find a clueless tourist who followed Google only to get trapped in the mountains in leftover spring snow.<\/p>\n

While Walt does what he does best \u2013 a successful rescue \u2013 he remembers a story his father told him while hunting when he was a teen. Walt found the tourist in the area where his grandfather, Lloyd, used to have an elk hunting camp. Walt remembers that his father and grandfather were with Big Bill Sutherland and others when Bill was shot more than 70 years ago in 1948. The mystery was never solved, and it was ruled accidental. Then Walt makes a surprising discovery nearby after he looks into a pile of rocks. This makes Walt think that Bill\u2019s death was no accident.<\/p>\n

Readers of previous books in the series will remember that Walt had a difficult relationship with his grandfather. As a child, Walt was sometimes was left in Lloyd\u2019s care. Although Lloyd taught him chess and other skills, they always seemed to butt heads. Fortunately, Ella One Heart, Lloyd\u2019s housekeeper, and daughter Ruth were around to help smooth things out. In this deeply personal investigation, Walt becomes convinced that his grandfather was a killer, so Walt begins digging down the frigid trail to find the truth, little anticipating the wild results of his search.<\/p>\n

According to Walt\u2019s father, Bill Sutherland had returned from the war and was the Wyoming state accountant. The others included Robert Carr, the state treasurer; Harold Grafton, chief clerk of the Treasury Fund; Lloyd, who was with the Bank of Durant; and Clarence Standing Bear, Henry\u2019s father. As word of Walt\u2019s investigation reaches south to Cheyenne, the capital, those in power try to stop his efforts. It turns out his digging has been tied to a fund worth billions that some are trying to protect at any cost.<\/p>\n

As Walt pursues digging into the past, readers learn a lot about his family and his relationships with them, especially his grandfather, Lloyd, and the house and ranch that he lovingly built. Walt had not returned there for more than 30 years. When he does, the memories, both good and bad flood back. In the middle of his personal and professional quest, Walt is also dealing with another quandary.<\/p>\n

Readers are treated to Johnson\u2019s keen and detailed rendering of landscapes and settings of the action in \u201cThe Longmire Defense.\u201d Retuning to Durant and Absaroka County and his wonderfully crafted and complex characters is a treat. It\u2019s like returning to a favorite vacation spot and the crew who make your visit memorable and fun. Like real life, these characters change and grow making them like old friends. Well, the good ones that is. This new book has a plot that twists and turns and keeps the action fresh and tense. \u201cThe Longmire Defense\u201d is one of the best in the series, and the last page will bring the phrase \u201cboy howdy\u201d to mind making readers impatient for the next chapter in Walt\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

Leslie Doran is a retired teacher and freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Courtesy of Craig Johnson) \u201cThe Longmire Defense,\u201d by Craig Johnson is quite the journey into the life and times of Walt Longmire, sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming. Fans of the Longmire series will be thrilled with Johnson\u2019s 19th outing with Walt, Henry Standing Bear, daughter Cady and the rest of the gang. It is May, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1060,28,1443],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-31734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-arts-entertainment","tag-headlines","tag-literature"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31734"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=31734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}