Looking For a Good Book

A wealthy, but unlikable local, Pepper McKay, is found dead in a local fishing stream, murdered by a blow to the back of his head. It might be easier to find someone who didn’t want him dead, but among the most likely suspects are the man’s four sons, all of whom had a motive for killing their father.

Absaroka County Sheriff Walt Longmire will investigate the homicide, but he’ll have to be quick about it because three different wildfires in the area are roaring his way by the unpredictable winds. And just in case he needed to be distracted from the events at hand, Walt also will have to try to understand and work with the former Russian spy, Maxim Sudorov, who voluntarily checks himself into Walt’s jail, but treats it like a luxury hotel. Maxim’s role is to provide Walt (and the reader) with clues and the comparisons of what’s happened with the McKay family, and Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov.

Like the previous book in the Longmire series, Walt is working mostly by himself here.  Vic, Henry, and Cady all make brief appearances as if to let the reader know they’re still around, but this is all on Walt, a Russian, and  mule. More on the mule in a minute.

Maxim, the Russian spy, is ever so friendly and a quirky, almost oddball character who fits right in to the circus that is Walt’s territory.  I have no doubt we’ll be seeing/reading much more about him in books to come. His role here is mostly to keep Walt focused on the connections to The Brothers Karamazov – just in case no one read or remembered the author’s Acknowledgements at the beginning of the book, Johnson writes about his reading(s) of the Dostoevsky book and how it influenced this Walt Longmire story.

I do like a story that really gives us a human (not superhuman) Walt. He still pushes the bounds of credibility at times, and laid back manner would be absolutely infuriating in person. How will he and Vic ever manage to live together?! He’s smart, clever, and he doesn’t get riled up too easily, but more importantly, perhaps, he’s one lucky SOB. Luck has gotten him through more trouble than wits or brawn.

My favorite character in this novel has to be Borax the mule. And why not?! Borax is really just an allegorical version of Walt. Slow, old-fashioned, stubborn, immovable except at his own desire and pace, smart, and lucky. In the previous Longmire book, Walt came out of the desert carrying two people to safety. In this book, it’s Borax carrying two people to safety. Tell me Borax isn’t the animal version of Walt … I won’t believe you.

I do enjoy the Longmire novels and I’m glad we’ve got some new folk to bring a different energy to the stories, but at the same time I miss some of what we get with Bear and Vic (while I like Cady, she seems to bring about more trouble than she helps to solve trouble). I hope we see more of them again soon.

Looking for a good book? The Brothers McKay by Craig Johnson is another thrilling Longmire western mystery with a pinch of Russian secrets thrown in.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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The Brothers McKay

author: Craig Johnson

series:  Walt Longmire #22

publisher: Viking

ISBN: 9780593830734

hardcover, 368 pages