A real saloon
Crows don’t
always fly in a straight line or the most direct route from A to, well, B. They
sometimes circle round C, catching thermals, fly up to nests, D, with shiny things in their
beaks, get tangled in string, Z, and, if Ted Hughes is to be believed, even scorch their
mother’s ears to stumps. In the ninth episode of the Longmire saga, Craig Johnson's As the Crow Flies (Viking Penguin, 2012),
they do all of the above (except the last).
This
novel succeeds the 2011 Hell Is Empty,
the Dante one, with the e-short story Divorce
Horse in between. In both short story and new novel, preparations are still
ongoing for Cady’s wedding (it seems to take a lot of preparing) though she
finally gets to tie the knot (or anyway ride into a Cheyenne ceremony on Wahoo Sue)
at the end of the novel. Divorce Horse
is fun, by the way, and tells of an Indian rodeo, a stolen horse and a love affair, as well
as the inevitable wedding arrangements.
As The Crow Flies is a much more traditional whodunit than the
more ambitious Hell and we have a woman who falls to her death from a cliff
(the Painted Warrior site Walt and Henry are reccying - if there is such a word
- as a possible wedding venue). Walt helps with the investigation into what
they assume is a murder rather than a suicide or an accident.
Longmire is
not only out of his jurisdiction, as he was when he worked undercover in The Dark Horse, but not even in his own
state. He is up on the reservation in southern Montana and he becomes the
mentor (the Virgil?) of a new and colorful character, tribal Police Chief Lolo
Long. Maybe Walt is still on a semi-leave of absence recovering from his
hellish ordeal and thus free to wander, leaving Durant in the hands of Rita
& Co. Anyway he seems to have plenty of time to counsel the sexy Lolo and
solve the odd crime. Unusually, he is not shot or even beaten up this time,
though someone tries to kill him, twice.
Walt
even takes a trip of another kind when he takes part in an Indian peyote
ceremony and hallucinates. A county sheriff tripping on controlled substances. Daring, huh.
It’s a
good story even if you will probably guess who dunit pretty early on.
Cliff
Cly, FBI, is back, which is nice.
The best bit is probably the sleezy Jimtown Bar, as near to a proper Western saloon as you are going to get these days. In fact this is a real place. I found this article which described the original Jim and his successors, and the history of the world's largest pile of old beercans. See what Montana has to offer?
There
are a couple of serious points made, though. Mr. Johnson is evidently concerned
with the post-traumatic stress syndrome affecting war veterans. Two characters
suffer from it in this story, one being Lolo, who has been in Iraq, and her aggressiveness
and inability to relate even to her own son are clearly manifestations of that.
Walt is duly understanding and helpful. The fact remains that one wonders what
kind of policing system would allow a hyper-active, in-your-face-aggressive,
untrained person with clear psychological issues to hurtle about the place with
a huge .44 sidearm which she draws at the drop of a hat. Kinda worrying. She
calms down, though, under Walt’s tutelage, and will maybe become a good
officer. Maybe.
At one
point a Cheyenne character, Mrs. Small Song, sneers at Lolo and calls her a “red snake” for serving “in
the white man’s army.” Ms. Small Song ws not polite but did kind of have a point, I guess.
There’s
a sympathetic portrayal of Indian life and the problems of Indian society and reservation life. It is clear that Johnson is an
admirer of Native American culture and history, even if he doesn’t use that
term. I must say that Indians I have talked to do dislike the expression and
indeed it is rather absurd – as if those of other family origins born in the
USA are not ‘native Americans’. There are also some good cowboy and Indian
jokes, my favorite being the Indian lying on the trail with his ear to the
ground.
There’s
a nice twist on the good cop/bad cop act as Walt and Bear do a good cowboy/bad
Indian bit. I also liked Henry’s Red Birney Irregulars, a nod to Sherlock
Holmes. Come to think of it, Walt’s powers of observation may not be exactly
Sherlockian (or like those of the Mentalist) but he is pretty damn good at
noticing things.
Lola (as
opposed to Lolo) is back, Henry’s powder-blue T-bird, though Johnson insists on
referring to it as a “vintage” car. A vintage car, dear Mr. J., is one made
between 1919 and 1930. Lolo is in fact a “classic” car. Never mind. We can’t
all be sad-case old-car experts like Jeff.
Anyway
As The Crow Flies is another good read and was followed by a couple more short stories about
which, dear e-pards, I will waffle on another day.
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