Craig Johnson Books In Order
Book links take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.Publication Order of Walt Longmire Books
Publication Order of Walt Longmire Short Stories/Novellas
| Christmas in Absaroka County | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Walt Longmire Collections
| Wait for Signs: Twelve Longmire Stories | (2014) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Anthologies
His novels are western style mysteries and have garnered him much critical acclaim and some awards as well. He continues to write Longmire mysteries, usually set in with the beautiful Wyoming nature as a backdrop.
Longmire, Path to Success
Walt Longmire is a sheriff in Wyoming’s Absaroka county. A sparsely populated area in Wyoming, where everybody knows everybody else. The Sheriff has been widowed for a few years and lives in neglected squalor, alone. He is a fair, if flawed character who has the backing of the entire county. People here like Walt and he wants to protect them to the best of his ability.
Craig Johnson has created a believable character who comes off the pages as being a person that you would like to get to know yourself and who you could trust. This makes the novels all the more true as you can easily see yourself accepting and supporting Longmire as the law in your town.
Auspicious Beginnings
The Longmire adventures began in 2005 with the release of The Cold Dish. The novel was received with great critical praise and it became apparent to any reader that Craig Johnson had a definite talent for the written word. He has a way of making the reader jump right into the story and quickly become immersed in Longmire’s world and hope to solve the mystery along side the Sheriff. In the first story we meet Walt Longmire who is faced with the toughest case of his career.
Not particularly pleasant for a man who is waiting to finish off his tenure in peace. The plot of the story revolves around the seeming murder of a young man named Cody. The murder weapon was a rare Sharps riffle and the only possible motive is that the boy was involved in the rape of a Cheyenne girl named Melissa Real Bird who suffered from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
This is not what Longmire was hoping to find when called to the scene. The plot line is interesting enough, but the cast of characters that are woven into the story are both memorable and real. Longmire’s life long friend Henry Standing Bear and the Deputy Victoria Moretti a tough ex-philadelphia cop whose mouth is as foul as any street thug, add to the texture of the novel.
The plot thickens as two of the other boys involved in the rape are found dead. This is definitely not the relaxing quiet end to a career that Longmire had wanted. The mystery deepens as it is discovered that several of the townspeople, with more than adequate motive, own Sharps riffles.
It takes cunning and tried and true police work to get to the bottom of the mystery, which Longmire has in spades. Craig Johnson won the 2006 Dilys award for the novel. Not only was the story great but the fact that Johnson was a patrolman himself brings a great dose of realism to the novel.
Death Without Company (2006)
The second installment in the Walt Longmire series takes a different path. This piece deals much more with character interaction. The Basics of the story is that Mari Baroja, a basque women is found dead at the Durant Home for Assisted Living. Everyone assumes that she had died of natural causes, after all this is a home for the elderly.
Lucian Connally, however sees thing differently, Longmire puts stock into that which Connally says as he was the Sheriff who hired Longmire in the first place. Connally surprises Longmire by admitting that he had actually been married to Mari from a few hours many years before. The marriage ended when Mari’s uncles and father hunted them down and gave Lucian a beating.
The autopsy reveals that she has indeed been poisoned, moreover a rash of crimes that would rival any major city center begins to plague the small Wyoming area. Craig Johnson has created a completely different type of story with this second installment, yet it remains as poignant and entertaining as the first.
Longmire on A&E
On June 3rd 2012, the Longmire television show premiered on A&E. The series received both critical and popular praise. In fact it was the all time top rated original series for a A&E. The television series is filmed in New Mexico rather than Wyoming,
There are other differences between the books and the television series, most specifically the lack of a Philadelphia connection in the television series. In the novels, Walt’s daughter, Cady, lives in Philly which is also where Vic Moretti comes from. This has allowed for a few stories to be moved to Philadelphia and add a different layer to the novels.
Craig Johnson also adds an element of the spiritual in his novels, often helping Longmire advance in his cases.. This element is all but absent in the television series. Nonetheless the series is very popular and has been renewed for another year. The series has also been exported and is now available in both the U.K. and in Australia. Craig Allen Johnson has created a wonderful set of characters set against a surreal natural backdrop.
Even though it would seem rather impossible for all of these mysterious crimes to occur in such a remote and sparsely populated area, the stories are too wonderful to ignore. This is actually the only part of the stories that demands a suspension of belief. Everything is so real, the characters jump off the page and you would swear you know someone exactly like that person in your everyday life.
With the advent of a television show and the popularity of the novels on the rise with the new fans brought in via this medium, we will be allowed to continue visiting Absaroka county for a long time. Craig Johnson is a master of his craft and must be read to truly appreciate the richness of his characters, the realism with which they are portrayed and the depth of his stories. Westerns may not be your style but these are more than worth the read.
Book Series In Order » Authors »
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I have enjoyed the television series for years and only recently realized it was based on books by Craig Johnson. I am now reading the book series & find there is so much more to learn – love them!
I really like the books by Craig Johnson and the main characters are very likable. The stories are interesting and good reading. However the tv series is very disappointing because the personalities of the main character are very different from those in the books. They aren’t very likeable or attractive.It’s so disappointing that I’ve quit watching; I really enjoy the books and continue to read them.
I still miss Walt Longmire! Will we ever get another book?
We don’t have cable so i just discovered the Longmire tv series on an “air tv” channel a couple of weeks ago and was hooked. However ran across the audio book on my Libby app and am enjoying it a whole lot more. They replotted the TV series and to the detriment of the book series, IMHO. While listening to Craig Johnson’s first book in the series I was able to follow each character as clearly as I was watching them,also I caught myself laughing out loud throughout each chapter. Keep up the great writing, I’ve already ordered the book in the series, can hardly wait until it arrives.
As a Canadian knowing about how Natives have been treated in Canada and the U.S. it is wonderful that Walt seems to show an understanding and sympathy for most natives.
My husband lost his sight 2 years ago. He is able to listen to your books through v the Library for the Blind. It has bee a great thing for him. He loves your books.
I was introduced to you books at a lecture you gave in Spokane, WA. Very interesting. I LOVE Walt Longmire. I have listened to some of the books 3 times and have watched the series on Netflix twice. I’m a fan. Hope you come back again soon.
REALLY Happy to find..
BookSeriesInOrder.com
Wow, I just finished audio of, “Next to last Stand”.
Things set up for many changes to come. Love Vic and crew.
They don’t have Dog in the
tv series – too bad, I like him.
The character in The Cold Dish is Melissa Little Bird.