The Western Star
A Longmire Mystery
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4.5 • 627 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Sheriff Walt Longmire's trip down memory lane leads to a mystery in the present in this mystery from New York Times bestselling author Craig Johnson
The hit drama Longmire is now streaming on Paramount+
Walt is enjoying a celebratory beer after a weapons certification at the Wyoming Law Enforcement Academy when a younger sheriff confronts him with a photograph of twenty-five armed men standing in front of a Challenger steam locomotive. It takes him back to when, fresh from the battlefields of Vietnam, then-deputy Walt accompanied his mentor Lucian to the annual Wyoming Sheriff's Association junket held on the excursion train known as the Western Star, which ran the length of Wyoming from Cheyenne to Evanston and back. Armed with his trusty Colt .45 and a paperback of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, the young Walt was ill-prepared for the machinations of twenty-four veteran sheriffs, let alone the cavalcade of curious characters that accompanied them.
The photograph—along with an upcoming parole hearing for one of the most dangerous men Walt has encountered in a lifetime of law enforcement—hurtles the sheriff into a head-on collision of past and present, placing him and everyone he cares about squarely on the tracks of runaway revenge.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The 13th installment in Craig Johnson’s beloved series sees Sheriff Walt Longmire take a harrowing journey down memory lane in an urgently suspenseful whodunit that pays homage to Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. In 1972, Walt was on the Western Star train when he was mysteriously knocked out, a deputy went missing, and another sheriff was murdered. What does that have to do with his present-day determination to prevent a prisoner from being granted compassionate release? Smartly written, meticulously plotted, and packed with witty asides, this romping, roaming mystery will hook both devoted and new readers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bestseller Johnson pays homage to Agatha Christie in his cleverly plotted 13th Walt Longmire novel (after 2016's An Obvious Fact), which takes place in both the past and the present. In 1972, Walt, an Absaroka County deputy and newly returned Vietnam War vet, joins his boss, Sheriff Lucian Connelly, for the Wyoming Sheriffs' Association annual excursion across the state aboard the steam train Western Star. In Walt's pocket is a copy of Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. On the train, Walt attracts the attention of Kim LeClerc, the comely companion of Sheriff George McKay, who warns the deputy to stay away from her. Soon afterward, during a station stop, someone knocks Walt out just as he's about to reboard the train. Walt hitches a ride to the next stop, where he learns that McKay has disappeared and another sheriff has been shot dead. In the present day, Walt is opposed to the release of a serial killer, who's dying and has been imprisoned for decades, for a personal reason that will catch readers by surprise. Witty dialogue abounds; when Kim asks Walt if he killed many babies in Vietnam, he replies, "Hardly any, they're small Hard to hit." And Johnson winds up the whodunit with a solution that Christie could never have imagined. 15-city author tour.
Customer Reviews
Incredible
I liked the way Mr Johnson tied the past into the present!!
The Western Star
One of Craig Johnson’s most complicated plots because of the split timelines. The reader must pay close attention. Johnson has a great imagination. I don’t know how he maintains his novel output, but I have enjoyed everyone of his books. I’m am a train enthusiast, and the Challenger locomotive provides an interesting plot line, and livens ups the flashbacks to the 1970’s. Spoiler alert: I’m looking forward to the next Walt Longmire book.
Western Star
Riding through a frozen hell ,the past and present Collide to make a great storyline. Craig Johnson always delivers come hell or High water thank you Liz32905