Book Review – The Cold Dish – Craig Johnson

Facts:

Book: The Cold Dish
Author: Craig Johnson
Genre: Mystery
Year of Release: 2005
Read 354-page paperback edition in February 2020

Book Description:

Walt Longmire is the long-time sheriff of quiet, desolate Absaroka County, Wyoming. The quiet, which is giving him time to work through the grief of his wife Martha’s passing several years before, is broken when a young man turns up murdered. Cody Pritchard is not only a murder victim but was the primary attacker of a sexual assault on a young girl from the nearby First Nation community. This means Walt has numerous suspects who had something against Pritchard, who got off with a slap on the wrist.

Now Walt needs to work with his staff of deputies, and his best friend Henry Standing Bear, to try and find the killer. There is also a sign that the killer would like nothing better than to serve up more revenge against the other three other men who were part of the sexual assault.

Book Review:

This first volume of the Sheriff Longmire mystery series was a great introduction to some fascinating characters, a great protagonist, and some amazing countryside.

You can tell right from the start of the book that author Craig Johnson is from Wyoming and has experience there. The description of the landscapes and weather of Wyoming is absolutely breathtaking, and really one of the great things about this novel. Like many westerns, this one does not disappoint when describing the outdoors. Johnson really succeeds in making the reader feel like they are in Wyoming and what it is like, with his descriptions and how they create emotions in the characters.

In addition, the novel is clearly setting up a series with the characters, and is thus sometimes overly long in some of the description of various elements and characters. However, we can expect it is because it is a setup for return appearances in future books, and it’s understandable.

That being said, the main characters that are introduced here are funny and create interest for the reader. Longmire himself is a complicated protagonist, a caring Sheriff who wants to make his county a safer place, but also one dealing with profound sense of loss and grief. His key deputy Vic Moretti is a little bit of the stereotypical foul-mouthed female police officer, but at the same time there is something about her that is different, and we know we will learn more. Two other deputies, Ferg and Turk, are stereotypically bumbling idiots at times, although again one wonders if those stereotypes will be shed in future books. Thus, there are some issues with one-dimensional characters at times, but there is some promise in the story that it won’t be like that in future outings.

Walt’s friendship with Henry Standing Bear is also an interesting part of this novel, and Henry is definitely one of the more compelling characters in the novel, with a fascinating backstory and great impact in the plot and in Walt’s story.

Another key character that deserves praise is Ruby, the hilarious office manager and dispatcher. She is like Walt’s mother, and at the same time she has a wicked sense of humour about her. Definitely a complex character that is enjoyable to read.

The plot itself is a great one, with lots of suspects and with murder victims and potential murder victims who do not have a lot of sympathy in the eyes of the reader for what they did in their recent past. That being said, it is Walt’s job to protect them, and investigate murders and hold the killer to account. We see Walt’s integrity as he goes about that duty seriously.

At times, the plot does feel a little slow moving, surprising for a mystery of this type. That being said, it is the first of a series, and with all the introductions of people and place, that may have been the reason for a slower plot. It definitely has some interesting characters, and some great complexities with the relationships between townsfolk and American Indians who live in the nearby Indian Reservation. (And the writing feels real in terms of how different people get along with the American Indians, both racist white people and the more thoughtful people like Walt for example.)

With all these elements taken together, this is definitely a promising first outing for the series.

Overall: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars