Craig Johnson’s fifteenth Walt Longmire novel, Land of Wolves, hit bookstores on September 17, 2019. I didn’t get around to reading it for seven months because, to be honest, I was no longer excited by the series. As I wrote in my review of Depth of Winter, “I’ll give Johnson one more novel in this series to recapture my interest, but at this point, absent a great follow-up novel to this one, I think it’s time for the sheriff to retire.”

I’m happy to report that Walt didn’t retire. With Land of Wolves, we’re back to what made the Longmire novels such page-turners in the first place. It all starts with a dead sheep, killed by a wolf. Or so it appears. But that dead sheep leads to a dead shepherd which leads to the revelation of an unspeakable crime. All this gets peeled back slowly, like taking layers off an onion one at a time.

In my review of Depth of Winter, I complained that Johnson had drawn caricatures rather than believable characters, had tested readers’ willing suspension of disbelief, and had transferred Longmire out of the mystery genre into the suspense genre, which didn’t suit him well. I don’t have those complaints about Land of Wolves.

It’s not a perfect novel. Walt still pulls off too many physical exploits for his age and physical condition. (Especially since he was so badly wounded in the previous novel.) But I’ll give Craig Johnson this: He’s recaptured my interest in the fate of the sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming.

I look forward to the next Longmire mystery.

Book Reviewed
Craig Johnson, Land of Wolves (New York: Viking, 2019).

P.S. If you liked my review, please click “Helpful” on my Amazon review page.