One of the best things in life – other than having a houseful of company for a child’s wedding, which is what we have now, so this post will be short – is stumbling upon an author who writes beautifully. Not too long ago I stumbled upon Craig Johnson, a western writer who defies the formulas traditionally used in the genre.
His protagonist in Sheriff Walt Longmire, who grew up on a Wyoming ranch, and left the west to play football in college. Sounds pretty traditional until Johnson saddles him with an English major, a stint in Viet Nam, and a propensity for playing Fats Waller tunes on the piano. His sidekick is his gigantic best friend and fellow football player Henry, also known as “the Cheyenne Nation.”
With this house full of wedding company, I don’t have time to detail what makes him so good, but here are a few tantalizing tidbits:
- He knows cowboys, and he knows ranch country so his writing is authentic. 7 years of living in cowboy country way back when makes me hard to please in this area, and Johnson pleases me just fine.
- His descriptions of the remote setting of his novels are accurate and poetic, the best I’ve read in a long time.
- Walt Longmire is a complex character, so human I sometimes think he’s one of the ranchers we knew in our days out west.
- He skillfully weaves phrases like “I felt like I was leaking time” into his prose. Love them, love them, love them.
Johnson has written several books in the Walt Longmire series. So far I’ve read two – out of order, unfortunately – and can’t wait to go back and read them all in the order they were written. A recent review by Oline H. Cogdill says his newly released Junkyard Dogs is the best Sheriff Walt mystery yet.
But don’t take her word for it. Or mine either. Try Johnson out and see what you think. And don’t be surprised if you schedule a vacation in Wyoming after reading one or two of his novels. He’s that good.
