The Hook - Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire Series are a good choice when lighter fare; old friends and a trip out west are needed.

The Line - ”Because it’s my job.“

The Sinker - I got what I expected and that’s mostly what she wrote.

Ranking in the series

Mystery/Plot 3.0
Character development 3.0
Romantic relationship/love life 4.0
Humor/Made me laugh 3.5
Narration by the formidable George Guidall 3.0
Overall enjoyment 3.5

A bit more – The Longmire Television Series is interfering with my bookish vision of Walt and company. Though I enjoy seeing Walt come to life on the screen, I truly how he is portrayed in my head due to the skillful writing of Craig Johnson. There’s a place for both but if you want the real deal, read the books.

Boy howdy!audio-books fiction mysteries ...more48 s carol.1,643 8,973


Review from my site at https://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2015/...

“Do you think there are more crazy people in our country than anywhere else?” Walt’s latest project has Vic Moretti wondering about the mental health of her adopted state. You see, Barbara’s son is worried about Barbara’s stories that angels are doing her household repairs. And eating her fried chicken. While Walt speculates that the wide-open space attracts those who need a certain amount of space, I’m thinking Absaroka County, Wyoming isn’t all that different. People just have more space to let their crazy run wild. Just wait until Vic meets Van Ross Lynear and his twelve spaceships. It turns out that the angel is a teenage boy who has been kicked out of a local Mormon-based cult. When Walt goes looking for the teenager’s mother, he gets stonewalled by cult members who refuse to allow him on to their well-guarded property. Lacking probably cause, Walt tries various ruses to get a closer look, but the cult members have some significant connections.

At any rate, this was series redemption. Relationship issues are present, but take a back seat to matters of a religious sect and a missing woman. Characters really are quite interesting, and there are more than enough people introduced to make for a complex puzzle of relationships. (It’s always nice in an ongoing series when it isn’t immediately obvious who the ‘red shirts’ are). There’s a fair amount of humor here, mostly in the form of the wide variety of people we meet, particularly an elderly man claiming to be over 200 years old, but also from Vic’s wildly inappropriate cop humor. Along with Vic, the Cheyenne Nation assists in investigation and resolution.

“‘Edgar Lynear was the first to ask from the other side of the truck bed, ‘We’re not already arrested?’
‘Not yet, but if I do it goes on your permanent record.’
‘What’s a permanent record?’
I turned and looked at Henry. ‘Doesn’t seem to carry the weight it used to.’”

The writing has a nice balance of action and imagery:

“He rammed his way past her, but to give her credit, even with a bloodied nose, she clung to his pant leg as he dragged her along with him… I made the four strides between us just as the pants slipped from his narrow hips. He darted into the living room, bounced off the room divider, and hurtled through the doorway. I watched helplessly as he skimmed off the porch and was gone a sidewinder.”

There’s a few points when I wondered if Walt was really considering what he was doing (or that Johnson was being consistent with character) but I was happy enough to follow along with the action and not get too caught in the details. At points, Walt actually caused more harm than the normal the old-timey sheriff, causing both personal and property damange. I suspect the tv series is showing influence, giving the reader/viewer the emotional satisfaction of rough justice. wise, there’s a traumatic event that really serves no purpose except to provide an easy justification for vengeance. I found this time I appreciated Vic providing a more analytical viewpoint to Walt’s kind-heartedness.

Overall, I’d say despite a few shortcomings, this book is proof that the series is still worth my time. There is something to be said for a feel-good story where bad guys will lose, good guys will triumph and redemption is possible. fast-and-fun mystery44 s Mark StevensAuthor 6 books185

In the case of Longmire v. Longmire, the verdict is in. The written version of the semi-jaded, semi-tough Walt Longmire fairly clobbers the two-dimensional approach on television.

“A Serpent’s Tooth” is the ninth full-length mystery about the grizzled, seen-it-all sheriff from fictional Absaroka County, and it’s every bit as good as its predecessors (although I am quite partial to “Hell is Empty” as the best in the series so far).

I’m perfectly fine with the television version as the gateway drug if it inspires viewers to pick up the books. Let’s hope. The problem with television’s attempt is that Robert Taylor, hard as he tries, can’t begin to let us in on the thoughts and attitude of the page-turning version of Longmire. In print, the first-person narrative lets us hear Longmire’s nimble mind and open heart. Yes, there are some dark clouds but he doesn’t dwell in the shade they produce. In print, we get glimpses of Longmire’s world view and his non-flashy intellect. On television, we get stern jaws, car crashes and drawn guns. Posing.

In the books, Longmire’s gentle humor is keenly intertwined with a sincere affection for the enormous variety of conditions and traits that fall under the general definition of “human being.” Longmire is bemused by his coworkers and not out to change one thing about the way his sheriff’s office functions (or doesn’t). He’s the relative newcomer in the long history of civilization in these parts and he knows his role. He is the walking embodiment of “let it be.” Unless you screw up, of course. His morals aren’t overly narrow. He wears his badge lightly but will take care of business when the situation or facts require otherwise.

The television version suffers from trying to disguise New Mexico as Wyoming (if you live out this way, believe me, you know the difference) and the show’s vibe rings heavy-dark. The books are light on their feet; while the show plays a mash-up of second-rate “Mannix” and CSI-Absaroka.

Nonetheless, a western-mystery series on the tube is welcome. The shows aren’t unwatchable (sorry if that’s faint praise) and Lou Diamond Phillips is very good as Henry Standing Bear. Walt Longmire deserves a huge audience.

“A Serpent’s Tooth” is solid. The plot involves a Mormon “lost boy” and the search for a missing woman and, ultimately, a nifty conspiracy designed to illegally tap….oh, read the book. The plot serves as a vehicle for Walt to figure out the bad guys and ferret out their motives but also as a chance for us to spend time getting to know Walt’s insights about humanity and his catalog of colorful trivia.

“As I thought about some of the things Sheriff Crutchley had said, I spotted one of the .45 dumdum rounds that must’ve rolled off the top of my desk. I picked it up and held it in from of my face. Neville Bertie-Clay, the British army officer who had worked at the Dum Dum Arsenal near Calcutta, had developed the hollow or soft point bullet that to this day carried the arsenal’s name. The things should have been called the Bertie-Berties.”

Longmire doesn’t wear his smarts on his sleeve. As readers, we get access to his thoughts and brainpower but Longmire is neither paternalistic or preachy or professorial toward the crew that surrounds him. He doesn’t use his previous military time or his IQ as a reason to judge. If anything, Longmire urges us all to admire the view, marvel at the wide array of personalities out there, and not take things too seriously.

Longmire is utterly human—and one of the most engaging, easy-going law enforcement officers around.

Boy howdy.


41 s Algernon (Darth Anyan)1,617 1,034


One of the attractions of visiting Absaroka county is that I never know beforehand what I’m gonna get and what kind of wacky locals will cross my path. Craig Johnson is doing a good job trying to find a new angle for each new episode in the career of local Sheriff Walt Longmire and, while I enjoy the continuity of several character arcs, I even more the stand-alone, self-contained nature of each novel and the new directions that the author tries out.

“A Serpent’s Tooth” may quote Shakespeare in the epigraph and deal in a way with the children trying to break free of the rigid rules of their elders, but for me the novel is structured more a homage to the classic Westerns of the fifties. Wyoming is particularly apt as a setting for the wide open spaces, its decrepit ghost towns and the cranky, solitude loving locals. I mean the ones who are not preaching naked from the rooftop of their ranches or building a spaceship in their backyard. Deputy Vic Moretti captures the anachronisms of the situation in her signature foul-mouthed style while Walt does a good impersonation of John Wayne:

Vic joined me on the walkway, our boots ringing in the silence of the town some Anthony Mann Western. She lingered for a moment, and as if on cue, a slight wind came up and powdered its way through town. Her voice was low, but I could still hear it: “No fucking way.”

I read the book on my recent holiday and I had a lot of fun with it, without detracting from the seriousness of the theme and from the dramatic moments that put more than a few of Walt Longmire’s deputies in mortal danger. Classic Westerns also relied on (crude) humour to relieve some of the tension from the confrontations between the good guys and the bad guys. Trying not to spoil these jokes, the reader is invited to find :
- the connection between visiting angels and Oreo cookies,
- why a vintage Playboy magazine is hidden in the same place as the Gun Buyer’s Annual catalogue,
- who is trying to resurrect a famous Teapot Dome political scandal from the 1920’s,



- what the hell is ‘scours’ ; calf diarrhea
- why a 130 years old Mormon hitman is visiting current day Durand and
- why are this old timer and his teenage charge so entranced by watching a movie called “My Friend Flicka”.



- Why another old timer of Mormon persuasion is interested in space travel

Sheriff Walt Longmire is not excluded from the misunderstandings and faux steps of this latest investigation into the activities of a reclusive sect that sets up shop in one remote corner of his county:

I was anxious that the populace not be treated to the sight of a grown man massaging his groin, handcuffed to a teenager in nothing but a shirt in the elementary school playground close to midnight.

In keeping with the Western theme, the investigation pits the lone Lawman Walt against a group of Outlaws, with SUV’s replacing horses and a lot of tough guy posturing on both sides, usually solved by Walt punching someone in the face. Since the main characteristic of the outlaws is that they are a splinter cell of Mormons who are flush with dirty money and are opposed to the government sticking its nose into their military-style camps, I kept seeing in my minds a Monty Python sketch with a guy screaming “Help! I Am Being Oppressed!”

The claims of some religious or Libertarian groups to be outside the law and to be allowed to do whatever they want inside their compounds, among their members or on Federal territory is the ‘serious’ part of the novel. Johnson does a good job here also, pointing out the damage brought about by isolating youngsters from the larger society and attempting to brainwash them, also how selfish claims seeking short-term profits run contrary to the interests of the society as a whole. 2016 has been a particularly rich year in such abuses, either gangs occupying national parks or oil companies threatening vital water reserves. Sheriff Walt is usually a ‘live and let live’ kind of guy, but in this particular case he feels he has to take a stand

“I’ve always been taught that religion is supposed to be a comfort to people, not a threat. I think these people have perverted something that’s supposed to be holy and turned it into a weapon.”

I have very few complaints about the current episode, except maybe that the product placements are getting more obvious ( ‘I’m sure I’ve never enjoyed a sip of anything so much as that girl enjoyed her first taste of Coca-Cola.’ ) but even in this particular scheme, Johnson can still maintain his sense of humour:

I’ve used Ace Hardware heavy-duty gutter caulking to stand up to the rigors of interplanetary travel.

>><<>><<>><<>><<

I’m planning to continue to read the Walt Longmire books. They may not be my top picks in the genre, but they are fun.
201625 s Eric940 83

While there were a lot of interesting aspects to this addition to the series, there were also a lot of little niggling things that bothered me. There isn't too much I can say without spoiling the story, but here are a few random thoughts (all of which may have mild spoilers, although I will hide any bigger spoilers):

- Walt went around punching people all book, didn't arrest those that were clearly guilty, and the one guy he did sort-of arrest, he let slip from his control multiple times. Walt was definitely carrying the idiot ball this book.

- The relationship between Walt and Vic that had been glacially developed in fits and spurts over the course of multiple books suddenly took a huge leap forward to a cliffhanging revelation There was a huge love-fest confessional between the two of them right before the climax, and then boom, Vic went and got gut shot and her pregnancy, which Walt had not known about, was terminated. Of course, this is exactly where this book leaves off with this relationship..

- Henry Standing Bear, proprietor of the Red Pony Bar, rode along with Walt for most of this book as some sort of volunteer unpaid deputy -- almost taking the role of Dog. I love The Bear's character, and enjoyed spending the extra time with him, but usually he is inserted into the plot more deftly than this, and to greater effect.

- The Powder Junction deputies' plot line(s) were handled awkwardly, although I did enjoy seeing more Double Tough in this book And I don't mean that they killed a character, which adds a certain element of gravitas to the series -- even though Frymire was a tertiary character at best -- I mean that they burned Double Tough and had him miraculously survive, only to have Frymire murdered unceremoniously less than a day later. It was an oddly handled bait-and-switch; we got the unearned death of Frymire instead of the earned death of Double Tough. I did how that plays into Double Tough's macho man nature, though..

- I wish the Mormon splinter cult was explored in greater detail, instead of the left turn that plot-line took They wound up being an oblivious front for an illegal oil drilling operation that was siphoning off the Bakken pipeline. Also, the action movie ending didn't fit the tone of the rest of the series Especially them not being able to find the body of the bad guy after he'd been shot so many times. That felt a cheap sequel set-up for a Die Hard movie..

- Did the CIA need to be involved in any way in this already convoluted plot? And did the random rancher that showed up in the beginning really need to turn out to be retired CIA to facilitate that load of coincidences?

- On a less serious note, I loved the introduction of Van Ross Lynear, the crazy patriarch of the Lynear family, that was building spaceships in his yard, and was sure this amazing locale would be revisited for the final showdown, but alas, it was not to be. Lynear just fell of his roof naked and died, and the plot-line disappeared completely..

Now that I look back up at that lengthy list, I realize it could be misconstrued that I disd this book, but that isn't true. I enjoyed it a good deal, I just have high expectations for this series after so many quality entries, and all in all, I think Johnson may have bitten off a bit more than he could chew here. The numerous characters, and their many intertwining actions over the course this book created a bit of dissonance with the overarching theme of parent/child relationships, which is even found in the title, taken from Shakespeare's King Lear:How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is
To have a thankless child.audiobooks craig-johnson detective-mystery ...more21 s Harry319 415

Book Review:

Just published A Serpent's Tooth is yet another outstanding Walt Longmire novel. As usual, we find ourselves in Absaroka County, Wyoming. And for those aware that I just finished a road trip to the great state of Wyoming: no, there's no such place in reality (unfortunately). But I did get an up-close and personal experience with Longmire's beloved big sky country, it's high plains, it's winds, and endless miles of pink tops (yeah, the roads were actually constructed of pink asphalt!).

We gain a good glimpse into Walt's long time budding romance that takes a severe twist in this 9th longmire novel. In this, we see Walt's rage come to full bloom and we find the usual secondary characters bring humor, action, and a certain novelistic and moral fortification to his rage: a longtime Johnson trademark. I d Walt's indirect assertion sprinkled throughout the book. He asserts that the solution to the problem is not solved by appeasement; it is solved by conviction.

(I could sprinkle in a few politico and/or diplomatic analogies from real life to compare that too)

Craig Johnson is a very, very reliable read. You really can't go wrong if this type of Western suspense is your cup of tea.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Series Review

Craig Johnson has written nine novels in his Walt Longmire series. Formerly a police officer; he has also worked as a educator, cowboy and longshoreman. Awards include Tony Hillerman Award, Wyoming Historical Society Award, Wyoming Councl for the Arts Award, as well as numerous starred awards. Johnson was also a board member of the Mystery Writers' of America.

Craig Johnson as an artist, as a man who paints with words ascribes to the essential characteristic of what makes art different from anything else: only it can portray the world as the artist thinks it ought to be as opposed to how it is. "Now a days, it's really hard to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys..." he says in an interview. "But Walt's a pretty good guy...the kinda guy if my car slithered off the road on I-80 in a blizzard, he's the guy I'd want to help me out." Johnson admits to portraying Walt Longmire, the hero in this award-winning series, as "The kinda guy my wife says I want to be in about 10 years."

Starting from his choice of book title all the way to the final period at the end of the book Johnson's prose fills the reader's soul with a longing for the good. And where else is one to find it but in the fictional county of Absaroka, Wyoming and it's Sheriff Walt Longmire. As with the work of William Kent Krueger Johnson introduces readers to the Western concept of cowboys and indians. Growing up in the Netherlands, I read till late in the night the wildly popular series Winnetou and Old Shatterhand (not available in the States). When playing outside 6000 miles away from American soil, it wasn't cops and robbers we played, it was cowboys and indians. It was this image of America I held in my mind as a 12 year old boy standing on the deck of the U.S.S. Rotterdam as we sailed into New York Harbor and waited in the lines of Ellis Island to be granted access to my boyhood dreams.

Un older western novels, however, Johnson brings this cultural diversity into the 20th century and without delving into multi-culturalism brings us to that mystical nether region between the two where native american and white man meet each other half-way. Johnson's aim is at portraying a fictional world as it should be and this includes diversity. Henry, a native american is Walt's best friend. The indian community stands ready to aid the law, helps the white man bring justice regardless of race, color or creed. Walt Longmire, in a hallucinatory fit, dances with the Cheyenne spirits who guide him to safety in the midst of a devastating blizzard even though the unconscious man slung over his shoulders is a perpatrator against a Native American woman. Walt does not question his sanity afterwards. Craig Johnson's world is one we might all long for...and isn't that the purpose of art?

Too often I read book where the reviewers seem to place verisimilitude above fiction. In my opinion, if you want reality, if you want to read about the way things are, then view a documentary, read a biography, check out reality TV. This is fiction, and if an author changes reality to suit his notion for the book, so be it...

For some, the first in the series moves along a bit slowly...but to them I would say: give this writer time to paint his world as he sees fit. Books that concentrate on rural settings often have the advantage of highlighting the human condition in startling clarity. Distractions such as are found in urban settings removed, we see good and evil and compassion in a more profound way. Wyoming's Absaroka County gives us this magnifying glass. I found the plot intriguing and the ending second-to-none. Truly, the titles are well chosen in these novels.

There's a huge fan base for Johnson's work out there. A fan base that is after values, the good kind. I'm reminded of my daughter's fascination with Taylor Swift, whose millions of fans adulate her for precisely the same reason: her vision of 'the good'. There is a Renaissance occurring in a real world that at best can be portrayed as lost in the grey fog of compromised values; a Renaissance that has caught the attention of not only our youth, but all ages. And they are telling us what they want.

There's a reason A&E's Longmire series has been approved for Season #2. The first season sported A&E's #1 original-series premier of all time with 4.1 million total viewers. I plan to read this entire series and after that, I plan to view the A&E series (hopefully on Netflix where it is not yet available for down-streaming). Johnson, remarking on the television series agrees that he is 100% on board as the televised version is keeping very close to the books.

Unless there is a drastic divergence in subsequent Longmire novels, this review will be the same for all the Walt Longmire books.

Enjoy!detective-mystery western-detectives16 s Thomas841 191

This is book 9 in the always enjoyable Longmire series. My wife and I started reading them after watching the first season of the tv series based on the books. If you decide to read them, I recommend reading them in order, starting with "The Cold Dish." There are some differences between the books and the tv series, but the tv series is pretty faithful on the whole. There is a video of the author discussing this, see https://www.goodreads.com/videos/1984...

In this book, Walt Longmire, Absaroka County Sheriff, is asked to listen to an older woman who says invisible angels are fixing things up at her house. Walt goes to her house while she is in town with her nephew. He does find a runaway teen who has been living in the pump house. He escapes, but they find him. He has run away from a cult group who are up to something sneaky in the far corner of the county.
As Walt pursues this cult group and while uncovering what they are up to, he encounters some truly wacky people, including one man who believes that he is over 150 years old and another who works on his roof stark naked when he is not building spaceships.

Some quotes--Shakespeare "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is/To have a thankless child."
Deputy Moretti to Walt --"Are we about to engage in the slowest car chase in cinematic history?"

There are some laugh out loud lines in the banter between Walt, Henry Standing Bear and Deputy Victoria Moretti. If you enjoy reading a mystery series with a little humor, then I strongly recommend this series. I rate this library book a solid 4 out 5 stars.craig-johnson16 s Judith E620 233

In searching for an abandoned young boy’s mother, Sheriff Longmire stumbles upon the compound of The Apostolic Church of the Lamb of God. Hidden in the mountains of Wyoming, the closer Walt gets to this polygamous group, the more dangerous the characters become. Walt’s investigation leads him to contacts in Mexico, the CIA, and South Dakota, and forces him to revisit the cinematic value of My Friend Flika.

As always, Walt conducts himself with grace and self-deprecating humor. At one point, after a ‘conversation’ with Deputy Moretti, Walt tips back in his squeaky office chair and suddenly finds himself on the floor. Barely regaining his composure, Walt decides this is as good as any spot to conduct business.

Craig Johnson keeps on writing unique, amusing, and likable characters submerged in the Wyoming landscape and the present day workings of a small town sheriff department. This #9 in the series, is one of my favorites so far.audible11 s Rebecca39 1 follower

I was truly disapppointed in this latest installment of Sheriff Longmire's adventures. Johnson does write well and often has some truly great passages (and given what else is out there, I had to give him some credit for nice sentences!) However, there are simply too many loose ends and implausible events. He seems absolutely unable to develop the hard-edged yet gorgeous Vic Moretto. When will we get past the glock-loving, foul-mouthed sexy toughie cardboard character? I had high hopes when she was introduced to the series, but not much has been accomplished. Or, perhaps I can't buy the idea that the tough hottie 30-something Vic is madly in love with mid-50s (?) , overweight Walt? Isn't there another plot line possible? I also thought Henry Standing Bear had minimal input in this story. In the past, he's provided a great cultural counterpoint to the cowboy culture of Wyoming. Yes, I know it's genre fiction - but for a while, this series has been a cut above. The introduction of the extreme Mormon spin-off cults as part of the story, and then the "real" back story to the crimes were interesting, as was the "immortal" Orin Rockwell character. But, how can Walt bust so many noses and not be stripped of office? Or, why did a fire destroy the sheriff's office? I guess it wasn't up to code -- no sprinklers? no smoke alarms? It is a diverting mystery, but too many moments of, "oh, come on now!" for me.13 s Magdalena aka A Bookaholic Swede1,971 837

Absaroka County. Cord Lynear comes to town looking for his mother. Walt Longmire decides to help him finding her and the trail leads to a polygamy group of people that seem to have something to hide...

One of the best books in this series. I miss the time when I had several books to read. Now I have to wait to read a year for a new book. Walt Longmire is such a wonderful character and I love how Craig Johnson always manages to write really interesting and suspensefully stories.

I strongly recommend this book series! read-201412 s The Girl with the Sagittarius Tattoo2,496 352

Shame on me. I went into this book with preconceived expectations that Craig Johnson slapped down.

The tale begins when a homeless teenager shows up looking for his missing mother. Cord is a “lost boy,” which are man-cubs who get kicked out of polygamous groups by adult men who don't want the competition. Walt learns the boy was reported missing by Sarah Tisdale, a woman who ran away from home in her teens and became involved with Roy Lynear's Mormonism offshoot. Walt and Undersheriff Vic Moretti investigate the compound, uncovering alarming abuses both mundane and unexpected.

They also meet a man who believes himself to be Orrin Porter Rockwell, the 200yo right-hand-man of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. Because, why not?

Walt is again working with his BFF Henry Standing Bear, aka “The Cheyenne Nation,” who always keeps Walt steady during the chaos. Admittedly, the story of a homeless teenager looking for his mom didn't do much for me, but as new characters were introduced and unexpected developments occurred, the book recovered. I just wish it hadn't taken half the pages to get me there.

Onward to Any Other Name.4-stars audiobook g-mystery ...more10 s Marty Fried1,092 111

A slight change of pace for the Longmire series, in that this didn't involve the Native Americans so much, instead opting for crazy Morons... I mean Mormons... or perhaps both.

Walt continues to be the slightly crazy hero, doing his usual crazy stuff walking up to people holding guns, and either knocking the gun out of their hands, or taking it away. He does not seem to fear guns as much as he probably should. Perhaps it's his lack of sleep.

But as usual, there were lots of interesting people, but unfortunately, I had trouble keeping up with all of them - partly because a lot of them seemed to have the same last name, it seemed. But it was an audiobook, so it was a little hard to keep up, but I love the narrator of these audiobooks, George Guidall. He does a great job of bringing out the dialects of this and other books he narrates.

Walt's romance with Vic sizzles to a boil in this one, and almost goes somewhere, but there's always something getting in the way. Probably always will be. They are an entertaining couple, but I don't know if they could last as anything more.audiobooks mystery10 s Julie1,908 570

Things are going just fine in Absaroka County. It's nearly time for the Homecoming football game. Sheriff Walt Longmire and his friend Henry Standing Bear have been asked to attend the game because their former jersey numbers are being retired. It's a small town fall....until a boy from a nearby Mormon sect wanders onto the scene looking for his mother. She has disappeared. When the case starts getting larger, crossing state lines and becoming much, much more than just a missing person's case, Longmire finds his life and the lives of his deputies are in danger.

I love this series! It is definitely one of my favorites. I love the setting, the characters, the lore and culture that Johnson weaves into his plots -- I love it all. I loved it so much I even watched the television series (several times in fact) and didn't complain when they deviated from Johnson's characters and plots. It was getting an extra dose of Longmire on top of the books. This is a series where I have the physical books on my keeper shelf all lined up in a row...matching editions. And I also listen to the audio books through my local library because George Guidall brings the stories and characters to life.

This story has a lot of character development moments, some bizarre twists and turns, and just plain weirdness. Normally, I might have raised an eyebrow and thought to myself that there is no way that people would actually behave this way or do these things. But.....after 2020.....and the things I have seen and witnessed people doing, saying and believing.....I just embraced the weirdness and went with it. Great story as usual!

Full stars from me -- I love the Longmire series! keeper-shelf read-audiobooks-20209 s Dorothy1,369 99

Time to check in once again on Sheriff Walt Longmire and the quirky residents of Absaroka County, Wyoming. This time there is definitely something rotten in the county but at first it is not clear just what it is.

The action kicks off with an old lady telling Walt about the angels that have been helping her out by doing repairs and chores around her house. It seems that she leaves out a list of the things she needs to have done and somehow they all get taken care of. She never sees any of the angels actually at work.

His curiosity awakened, Walt decides to investigate the miracle and discovers a teenage boy who is the actual angel in the flesh. Walt learns that he is a "lost boy" cast out from a cultish offshoot of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that has set up operation in his county. He puts the boy, named Cord, in a cell until he can contact Child Welfare and figure out what to do with him, then gets him a job at the local diner, washing dishes and generally helping out. But the boy keeps "escaping" and is soon joined by a ragamuffin old man who describes himself as Cord's bodyguard.

As Walt continues to investigate and get further involved, he learns that the boy's mother (from the cult) has been looking for him. He also learns that she is actually originally from the county and her mother, from whom she is estranged, still lives there and runs a bookstore. When he tries to gain access to the cult's property in order to talk with the mother, he is denied entrance. With no probable cause, he has to engage in some roundabout investigatory methods to try to get at the answers to all the questions that have been raised in his mind.

Meanwhile, some very nasty characters are crawling out from under the rocks turned over by Walt and his deputies, and Absaroka County is proving to be a very dangerous place for those deputies.

The best thing about these Walt Longmire books is that we get to experience them inside the quick and nimble mind of Walt. It's a mind that is marked by an affection for the unconventional and sometimes kooky and offbeat set of humanity that populates the county, the laws of which he is sworn to uphold. He has an open mind and heart toward these people and he prefers to just "let it be" and "live and let live" whenever possible. But he also has a keen sense of justice - and injustice - and he always tries to find a way to allow the better angels, even if they are just "lost boys," to triumph.

Longmire is quite simply a very humane and engaging character, always fun to read about.modern-day-mysteries western-mysteries8 s Linda Baker941 20

Early in A Serpent's Tooth, Walt Longmire's under sheriff, Vic Moretti, poses the question, "Do you think there are more crazy people in our county than anywhere else?" It certainly seems so when one of Walt's constituents tells him about an angel who is doing home repair for her. She has never seen this angel but she leaves a list for him when she goes out on errands and the chores are done when she returns. This angel s her fried chicken and sometimes takes a shower, but always cleans up after himself. When Walt and Vic investigate they discover a skinny 15 year-old named Cord Lynear. Cord is a Mormon "lost boy", one supposedly kicked out of his community for undesirable behavior. Cord is dangerously naive and amazingly slippery. He also comes equipped with a "bodyguard", an old man who claims to be 200 year-old Orrin Porter Rockwell, legendary enforcer of the early Mormon Church.

Walt was unaware of any Mormon settlements in the area and sets out to find the boy's mother. When he arrives at the compound he does not find the mother but discovers a polygamous cult, armed to the teeth, run by 400 pound Roy Lynear. Lynear reminded me of Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now, possessing just that sort of charismatic menace. Walt knows there is much more going on in the compound and it looks Big Oil and even the CIA might be involved. As usual nothing will stop Walt in his pursuit of the the truth.

While I always enjoy the Longmire books, A Serpent's Tooth is a welcome return to the Absaroka County of earlier books. Henry Standing Bear, Walt's steadfast Cheyenne best friend and unpaid back-up plays a much larger part in A Serpent's Tooth than in recent books. Vic, Ruby, Ferg, Saizarbitoria and all the other local characters that make the series so memorable are present as well. Craig Johnson's signature dry humor is back and Walt is always at his best when he interacts with those people he has sworn to protect.

I highly recommend the entire Walt Longmire series, starting with The Cold Dish. Few writers can draw such indelible characters with such spare and elegant prose. A&E's Longmire series is well worth watching (and I do) but can't hold a candle to the richness and complexity of the books.

RATING- 4.5 8 s Homerun22,332 13

3.5 stars

I love Walt Longmire, I really do, but this book disappointed me. We all know it's called fiction for a reason, but when the plot is not remotely credible it's tough to embrace. Don't want to drop a spoiler so let's just say that Mr. Johnson needs to talk to some firefighters for fact-checking.

Sadly, I often find that when romance enters a series, the quality goes down and this is no exception. What is Vic doing here? She hates Wyoming, she and Walt are not really believable love interests, and the rest of us are tired of reading about her tarnished eyes and canine tooth. Over and over again.

You couldn't miss the several hints about Walt's daughter in this book, so here's hoping he's not setting us up for an angst ridden future scenario.

Walt is a great character and his easy relationship with Henry is the best thing about the series. I missed Lucian in this book, and got tired of Walt bashing his fists or various other objects into any ly suspects -- seems to me, he used to be a more reluctant enforcer.

It must be tough to maintain a series over the course of many books and this series delivers an awful lot of great stuff so I'm hoping he'll return to his earlier form soon.8 s Karl3,258 324

I am enjoying the heck out of these Craig Johnson "Longmire" books. They are quite engaging and most readable. The characters are enjoyable as they work their way through solving and resolving situations in the Wyoming landscape. If asked to describe the Longmire books, I would call them a cross between Mysteries/Adventure categories.

Let me say here and now that the books are on a different track then the television show. If you enjoy the A&E T.V. series you are sure to enjoy these books.

Johnson paints a picture of Wyoming better than anyone else I have encountered. The mountains and plains, small towns and quirky residents make these stories quite endearing.

In this installment Walt Longmire is asked to fined a missing woman and her son. He encounters a secretive Mormon compound, some quite villainous characters, and a collection of old rare books, one of which is a signed first edition copy of "My Friend Flicka" by Mary O'Hara.8 s Jason KoivuAuthor 7 books1,334

Another solid addition to the growing Longmire series! Walt is a great larger-than-life hero for the "modern" age. I put that in quotes, because Johnson's series has a distinct "old soul" feel to it. I'm really falling in love with these books!crime detective fiction8 s Julie1,908 570

Things are going just fine in Absaroka County. It's nearly time for the Homecoming football game. Sheriff Walt Longmire and his friend Henry Standing Bear have been asked to attend the game because their former jersey numbers are being retired. It's a small town fall....until a boy from a nearby Mormon sect wanders onto the scene looking for his mother. She has disappeared. When the case starts getting larger, crossing state lines and becoming much, much more than just a missing person's case, Longmire finds his life and the lives of his deputies are in danger.
I love this series! It is definitely one of my favorites. I love the setting, the characters, the lore and culture that Johnson weaves into his plots -- I love it all. I loved it so much I even watched the television series (several times in fact) and didn't complain when they deviated from Johnson's characters and plots. It was getting an extra dose of Longmire on top of the books. This is a series where I have the physical books on my keeper shelf all lined up in a row...matching editions. And I also listen to the audio books through my local library because George Guidall brings the stories and characters to life.

This story has a lot of character development moments, some bizarre twists and turns, and just plain weirdness. Normally, I might have raised an eyebrow and thought to myself that there is no way that people would actually behave this way or do these things. But.....after 2020.....and the things I have seen and witnessed people doing, saying and believing.....I just embraced the weirdness and went with it. Great story as usual!

Full stars from me -- I love the Longmire series! keeper-shelf7 s Amy H. SturgisAuthor 40 books390

A Serpent's Tooth rates somewhere between a 4 and 5 for me. I should also mention that now I've read Walt Longmire referencing Frank Herbert's Dune, I can die a happy woman.

The more I think about A Serpent's Tooth, the more I appreciate it as a novel and as a further development of the Longmire series. It brings the Absaroka County "players" into the spotlight (including secondary characters such as Double Tough and Frymire), it delivers more peril and loss than any other installment in the series thus far, and it deftly handles -- and brings to powerful and wholly unexpected fruition -- the prophecy that has been casting a dark shadow over Longmire's life for the last two novels. Longmire lets his control and judgment slip more than once here, and while his behavior isn't always able, it's always understandable. He's all the more compelling for his missteps and all the more human for his anger.

The new characters are a fascinating lot, as well: an old woman who is convinced angels are doing her home repair work; a slippery Mormon "lost boy" and his "bodyguard," who claims to be 200 year-old Orrin Porter Rockwell, legendary enforcer of the early Mormon Church; an elderly man who builds spaceships in his backyard in anticipation of heavenly ascension; an amiable middle-aged woman in the county whose quiet retirement belies the fact she is ex-CIA; etc. The list is a long one.

"Do you think there are more crazy people in our county than anywhere else?" Vic asks. It certainly seems that way. My main objection to this novel is that Henry Standing Bear seems reduced to a tag-along figure, and while he's greatly needed, he seems to have abandoned his own pursuits and business simply to follow, enable, and rescue Walt. Then again, his presence is so welcome, I really shouldn't complain -- and, as the novel makes clear (as the high school retires both Longmire's and the Bear's football numbers), both men really have been playing the same game on the same team for most of their lives.

Un most of the novels in the series, A Serpent's Tooth ends on an emotional cliffhanger. I'm already reaching for the next book. I recommend it to all Longmire fans.21st-century mystery western7 s Benjamin Thomas1,980 353

Sheriff Walt Longmire of Absaroka County Wyoming has had to deal with some kooky characters in the past but this time around he has a whole host of them. Chief among them is an elderly man claiming to be the 200+ year old Orrin Porter Rockwell, a controversial figure of the Old West and personal bodyguard to both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. It also seems Joseph Smith personally blessed him saying, “so long as ye shall remain loyal and true to thy faith, you need fear no enemy. Cut not thy hair and no bullet or blade can harm thee.”

Several polygamous Mormon splinter groups play prominent roles in this novel as well. So do “Lost Boys” who are young boys and men who have been kicked out of their families so as to preserve a better husband-to-wife ratio for these polygamists. This is a real thing and is one of several themes in this novel that lead it into a bit darker territory than many of the Longmire books thus far. But it’s not all about religious fringe groups; money and oil also have big roles. And the danger level is ratcheted up one more notch.

The main case that drags Walt and friends into these issues is of a missing woman, the mother of one of these Lost Boys. As usual, Craig Johnson brings lots of humor to these books, counterbalancing the darkness. It was also a nice reminder that Walt and his primary deputy, Vic Moretti, are both excellent detectives and experienced police professionals. Their eventual solution is innovative as well as great fun to read.

As expected, another great Walt Longmire book. Hope these continue for a long time to come.mystery-police-procedural7 s Erin FarwellAuthor 4 books16

I discovered Craig Johnson by watching Longmire on A&E. While the show is wonderful, the books are so much more. This one doesn't disappoint. As always, past and present, personal and professional mix for Sheriff Longmire and at times it seems that I understand his world better than he does. I read this one out of sequence because I received a signed copy as a birthday present but it didn't matter. The plot is timely and complex, clues and red-hearings plentiful, and joys and sorrows intermingled to a satisfying whole. I recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery where the characters are as developed as the plots. favorites7 s John512 18

This was a great read just all the other books in the Longmire series. It had an abundance of action, a good amount of humor, some sad parts and a whole bunch of “Who dunn it and how come”. I am looking forward to the next in the series for this novel left some questions to be answered.7 s Daniel Ray109 1 follower

Another entertaining Longmire story!!6 s Charty970 15

After a steady progression of increasing quality in Johnson's Longmire series (save perhaps for Hell Is Empty, which I didn't care for) A Serpent's Tooth proved a disappointment. Which is not to say it was terrible, but there definitely elements that I felt lowered my grade. On the up side there was little to no Indian mysticism in this one. I'm ok with it, in small doses, so it's absence was fine with me. Also Vic & Henry got more to do then a few lines at the beginning or end of the whole book. I get that Walt is the hero and it's his series, but part of what keeps Walt from being entirely insufferable are his friends. So it was nice to see the whole team with more involvement.

Besides those pluses, the book had a lot of drawbacks. The plot was very unfocused. Seemingly it was about the splinter Mormon groups and their cults and polygamy. But then it turns into illegal oil drilling. Throw in some CIA and Mexican mafia and you can see where readers might have gotten confused. Some plot threads are introduced only to be dropped with little consequence. Characters whom
appear to be important to the story do wise. You could fairly say I didn't really care much about the mystery or the surrounding baggage. My other main peeve is Vic Moretti. I know there are a lot of readers who don't her, and certainly not her relationship with Walt. I think she's fine, a useful 'outside' perspective on the West and frankly if she and Walt want to knock boots they are two consenting adults. My problem
Is that as a character, Vic is a caricature. A foul-mouthed former big city detective who is tough as well as beautiful, she doesn't get to be anything more than that. She's supposedly Walt's number 2 but she does little but provide some crude words and surprise Wyoming rubes with her competence. I wish that she had some more depth and that she was more of an equal partner with Walt - professionally as well as romantically. There's some fairly big turns to their relationship that I won't spoil. Suffice to say when Walt complained about her seeming overly emotionally I wanted to box his ears. Oh well, they can't all be masterpieces. Guess I'll see what I think after the next one.6 s Mark1,452 161

Another great Walt Longmire story in which we see the good sheriff enter into a conflict with a religious cult, simply because the story started with one of Longmire's citizens telling him about her angel who helps her with repairs around the house.

It turns out to be an angel of the teenage persuasion with strong religious believes that falls in love with a VHS tape that contains a movie that he watches over and over. Soon the kid gets a bodyguard by none other than a 200 year old Mormon warrior. And this while Walt wants to find the kids mother who pretty soon is suspected to be dead which does not stop Longmire at all looking. Which does bring him in immediate contact with a religious cult that is bend to protect themselves against interference of the law.
Suddenly Longmire and his crew find out that this particular religious cult is not only well armed and funded but that they have some folks hanging around that define shady and dangerous in a whole new way.
Too bad that they find out to late that this country Sheriff comes along with some folks that do not mind to kick some ...........
A very eventful and action filled episode of the Longmire books that is difficult to lay down, but then I decided against getting fired so I had to put down the book and occasionally take care of the family.
And do not forget that we get to find out more about Longmire and Vic's relationship or whatever it is called in their own heads.

Any reader that follows the chronological releases of the books will feel the need to continue the series after reading this book. I know I did.2016 western5 s Vicki164 1 follower

Not gonna lie, it was pretty bad. Multiple premises that didn't seem to mesh together very well (polygamy, religious cults, Mexican mafia and the CIA). Furthermore, there were characters whose presence didn't seem to make much sense or add to the story. The violence seemed pretty gratuitous.

(Am I the only one who thinks the romance subplot gets weirder and weirder with each installment of the Longmire series?) 6 s Koeeoaddi487 2

Entertaining. But though I can't complain about the lack of strong woman characters in these books, I wish the author would throw in a smidge of dimension now and then.

Tough as nails? Yep.
Great comic timing? Check.
Inventive and hilarious use of profanity? Boy howdy.
Incendiary rage? Uh huh.
Much else? (I thought about it.) Not really.2016 american-west characters-i-love ...more5 s John of Canada1,014 56

When I was a little kid,I used to play Cowboys and Indians with my friends.I also watched all the cowboy shows.One of them was called Have Gun Will Travel about a sophisticated San Franciscan named Paladin.He would go out to the wild west to help those in need.One of the things he did was quote Shakespeare on a regular basis.I would go to the library find plays and then quote Shakespeare to me friends.They thought I was loco.
Walt Longmire was a modern day Paladin,not just quoting Shakespeare but Dante,Emily Dickinson and other literary greats.I learned a lot about the Mormon religion and various sects,also a lot about American history and oil drilling as well as how government doesn't work.What will I do when the series runs out?5 s Scott498 49

Autor del comentario:
=================================