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Sheriff Walt Longmire of Absaroka County, Wyoming, is back for another mystery. No, Walt didn’t go away after his television series ended. Walt was around long before the series, and creator Craig Johnson keeps the mysteries coming. As I’ve said before, the series was good, but the books are excellent.

Johnson, originally from Oklahoma, has lived in rural Wyoming for many years. With 20 Longmire novels, and a series that ran six seasons, Walt Longmire is a well-known character. He is brave, duty-bound, and an unpretentious man, who follows a case like a dog on the trail of a bone.

“Walt is who Craig would like to be in 10 years,” said Johnson’s wife. “It’s just he’s off to an incredibly slow start. … Not only is Craig Walt, he’s also Henry, Vic, the dog.”

Walt the television character is stoic, serious and closed. I enjoyed the series, but as I’ve said in other book reviews, the TV version is humorless and wound very tight. The book Walt is a hoot; funny, quirky and a bit daring. Book Walt is very interesting.

First Frost (Viking, 2024) is the newest Longmire mystery. As is frequently the case, Johnson utilizes a story that takes place in the present and flashes back to 1964. Walt and Henry leave California for a cross-country trip before each is to arrive for their military induction after college. They immediately run into a problem and things are complicated and not as they seem. That story is told to Vic in flashbacks as current day Walt has his own problems: a hearing regarding use of deadly force, as outlined in the previous Longmire book, The Longmire Defense.

The Longmire novels are mystical and spiritual in a way the television series avoided. Johnson gives the audience things that cannot be explained, or things that have a real world explanation, but also something that requires a deeper belief. In these books, and First Frost is one, there is a clash of cultures, and the ugly specter of race. Not only are Native Americans treated as a burden, this book revisits the internment of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War, and the prejudice that lingered years after the war.

For me, Johnson creates stories that blend reality and fantasy, and push the boundaries of time. I’m often not sure whether it is day or night. No one seems to sleep. Time is meaningless.

In First Frost, Johnson is able to keep several stories going at the same time, juggling intersecting events and eras. In the surface, his books seem straightforward, but that is often not the case.

The 1964 Walt and Henry aren’t much different from the current incarnation, but it’s interesting to meet their younger selves. The 1964 story is superior to the current day story, so much so that I wish the book had been the entire flashback. Walt and Henry are out of college, about to depart California, and soon to join the military, when a boat appears to be sinking and the crew in trouble. They quickly jump in the oceans to rescue the crew from drowning. True to their character, they risk their lives to save strangers in trouble. This sense of duty is the focus of First Frost, and will get them into further trouble.

While I found the flashback story to be the one to hold your attention, it seemed to veer too far into Jack Reacher territory. When describing a Longmire fight scene, the name Reacher could be aptly substituted. The book’s ending was a bit far-fetched, and a bit of a reach, or should I say, Reacher.

I hope Johnson’s next Longmire installment is a bit less sensational, and more focused on Walt and Vic. Still, First Frost was an enjoyable read.

3/5