Longmire 2
Death Without Company (Viking Penguin, 2006), which was named the Wyoming Historical
Association's Book of the Year, is the second volume in the Longmire series and the story starts in
the winter after the demise of Vonnie (see The Cold Dish). This one deals with Basques in Wyoming as well as Cheyenne and
Crow.
Most of
the team at the Absaroka County Sheriff’s Department of Vol. 1 return: Walter
Longmire, of course, who tells the story in the first person; Ruby, the
dispatcher; Vic Moretti, the foul-mouthed deputy from Philadelphia; part-time
deputy Ferg, when he isn’t fishing; and former Sheriff Lucian Connally, old-folks
home resident and part-time dispatcher when Ruby is off. Lucian’s nephew has,
however, disappeared as deputy (no great loss), hived off at the end of The Cold Dish to the Highway Patrol, and
is replaced by Basque-Mexican Santiago Saizarbitoria, called Sancho by Vic, a
new recruit. The team gains another recruit in the last chapter.
Vol. 2
And naturally
Henry Standing Bear is back, presiding over the Steinbeckian bar The Red Pony (“continual
soirée”, whatever that may mean) and he once again plays a key part in the action, saving Walt’s bacon,
in fact, much as Walt saved his in the previous tome. Well, they save each
other’s bacon on a pretty well 24/7 basis. Walt’s daughter Cady returns from
her lawyering for Christmas, though Walt doesn’t have much time for her, as a
pretty high homicide rate strikes the county (again) right during her visit.
Yup, it’s
a murder story, natch, with Lucian’s old people’s home co-resident, the Basque
Mari Baroja, dying and Lucian insisting she was poisoned. The plot thickens faster
than quick-drying concrete boots pretty well immediately thereafter as murders and attempted
murders follow in quick succession. Mari turns out to have been a very rich
woman, and various unsavory relatives seem to be suspects.
It’s interesting
that the Wyoming Historical
Association liked the book but you can see why. Longmire is more than half
cowboy, with his Stetson and .45 and love of the past. And like all good
Western heroes, he is modest, brave, taciturn and resourceful. This really is a
contemporary Western, even if he does use his four-wheel-drive Bullet rather
than a four-leg-drive horse.
Craig with Death cake, probably baked at the Basque bakery next to the Durant chainsaw service place
There are
nasty badmen, a sinister éminence grise
behind the plot, a fair amount of firearms going off and mucho skullduggery,
all the right ingredients, in fact, for a modern crime thriller, but in a
semi-Western setting. The stake-out/set-up in the hospital is particularly well
done.
And it’s cold.
Winter in Wyoming, boy, they do winters there and no mistake.
Well, on to
2007’s Kindness Goes Unpunished.
I hope Walt and the Bear aren’t going to
get shot up at this rate for all fourteen stories. There won’t be much left of
them.
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