The Longmire Defense: A Longmire Mystery was my introduction to the series by Craig Johnson. The character is evidently also the subject of a Netflix original series. I don’t have Netflix, so I wasn’t familiar with it.
Walter Longmire is the aging sheriff of a rural county in Wyoming where his family has been prominent for generations. He’s a Vietnam veteran pushing, or passing 70, so he’s on the verge of becoming a crusty old coot. He doesn’t carry a cell phone, because, well, it’s not really clear except that’s supposed to make him endearing. This doesn’t stop his much younger deputy from being in love with him. It’s a relationship he blows right at the start of the book in an act of cluelessness that does actually make him a little bit endearing.
If you like crusty old coots, this book might be for you. I don’t, and while there isn’t anything bad about this book per se, it’s not for me. The writing is engaging, and you do get a sense of the place and the personalities of the people in the two where Longmire is the law, but if are not into this kind of thing, the book is tedious.
While the book is called a mystery, the mystery solving aspects of the story feel underdeveloped to me. The book centers on the investigation of a hunting accident that took place in 1948. It may have been a murder, one that Longmire’s soul-crushing bully of a grandfather may have committed. So, he’s investigatin’, a process that brings him into contact with a bunch of oddball characters and puts him, and others, in grave danger.
The killing may have been 75 years ago, but it seems that people today very much want it left unsolved. The revelation of clues and interviews with suspects are not effective, in my view. You don’t find yourself trying to solve the mystery because you’re not given enough to work with. It feels plodding.
Also, and I know this seems like minor thing to harp on, the dates are difficult to grasp. 1948 was a long time ago, but the sheriff at the time is still around, full of piss and vinegar. He’d have to be 100 for this to work, and it doesn’t seem believable.
Finally, in one scene, the coroner from 1948, who is still at work, unbelievably, is revealed to be 99 years old. This feels like a book written in 1990 and released now. Maybe I’m being unfair, but if a book has you doing math in your head to make sense of the dates, it’s failing.
What does work, as the book gathers steam, is the Longmire character’s steel-like resolve to figure this situation out. He’s offered plenty of bribes to let it go, and plenty of threats to his life if he won’t. He won’t, and you like that about him. He’s a lawman of the old west, and he can’t be bought or scared off. The suspense in the action scenes also works well.
So, as I say, this wasn’t for me, but it might be for you. If you like western stories and characters, you might find yourself enjoying this tale.