Hell Is Empty: A Walt Longmire MysteryCraig Johnson
Viking Adult, June 2011
ISBN: 978-0670022779
Wyoming's favorite sheriff braves a frozen inferno as he races to capture an escaped murderer.
In Hell Is Empty, the seventh book in this series, Walt Longmire and his deputy Sancho find themselves escorting a group of convicts through the Bighorn Mountains to meet a convoy of federal agents and sheriffs from neighboring counties. One of the convicts, a psychopath named Raymond Shade, recently confessed to burying the body of a Native American boy. Shade, who is headed for death row in Utah, escapes and takes off into the icy hell of the Cloud Peak wilderness. Despite the warnings of his deputy that he’s being led into a trap, armed with his Colt .45 and Sancho’s copy of Dante’s Inferno, Walt sets off alone on the killer’s trail.
Longmire, the sheriff of fictional Absaroka County, Wyoming, isn't a supercop, he's an older guy, a Vietnam vet, and a Wyoming native. He grew up on a ranch, is a widower with one daughter, and a strong sense of justice that is served well by his skills as a steady methodical cop. More than that, he's an interesting person, something of a renaissance man. This is a good thing as the mysteries are all in first person. The whole gang you've come to know and love -- Vic, The Bear, The Basque, Ruby, Cady -- is there but just in flashes, because it's all about Walt and the mountain and the man he's after.
Longmire, the sheriff of fictional Absaroka County, Wyoming, isn't a supercop, he's an older guy, a Vietnam vet, and a Wyoming native. He grew up on a ranch, is a widower with one daughter, and a strong sense of justice that is served well by his skills as a steady methodical cop. More than that, he's an interesting person, something of a renaissance man. This is a good thing as the mysteries are all in first person. The whole gang you've come to know and love -- Vic, The Bear, The Basque, Ruby, Cady -- is there but just in flashes, because it's all about Walt and the mountain and the man he's after.
Johnson uses the action adventure genre to its fullest. The forward momentum of this book is like no other, and the book contains some of his best action scenes yet. Most effective are the references to Dante’s work, from which he derives much of the story’s humor and which he also uses to help us look at Walt’s spirituality. The mystical elements of the Walt Longmire series are among my favorites. Johnson's approach to them is respectful of the cultures from which they exist and it's beautiful amidst a plot of death and destruction.
The debut novel in this series, The Cold Dish (2005), introduces the charismatic Longmire, and the Sheriff instantly wins your admiration with his humility, integrity, and humor. Craig Johnson's mysteries are well structured and compelling, not relying on gimmicks or tricks, but instead on fleshed out characters, snappy dialogue, close observation of human nature, and a vivid landscape that is just as important as any person in the book. Hell Is Empty is a book you won't be able to put down until the final satisfying page.
Craig Johnson’s novels are being filmed by A&E for a television pilot titled Longmire
Craig Johnson’s novels are being adapted for television in a joint venture between A&E and Warner Horizon. The series is called Longmire and the pilot was shot in the spring in the Taos and Santa Fe area. Longmire will be directed by Chris Chulack (Southland, ER) and will star Robert Taylor (Matrix, Vertical Limit) as Sheriff Walt Longmire, Lou Diamond Phillips (La Bamba, Young Guns) as Henry Standing Bear and Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica, 24) as Vic Moretti.
CRAIG JOHNSON has received both critical and popular praise for his novels The Cold Dish, Death Without Company, Kindness Goes Unpunished, Another Man's Moccasins and The Dark Horse. All five novels have been made selections by the Independent Booksellers Association, and The Cold Dish was a DILYS Award Finalist and was translated into French in 2009 as Little Bird and was just named one of the top ten mysteries of the year by Lire magazine and won the Prix du Roman Noir as the best mystery novel translated into French for 2010.
CRAIG JOHNSON has received both critical and popular praise for his novels The Cold Dish, Death Without Company, Kindness Goes Unpunished, Another Man's Moccasins and The Dark Horse. All five novels have been made selections by the Independent Booksellers Association, and The Cold Dish was a DILYS Award Finalist and was translated into French in 2009 as Little Bird and was just named one of the top ten mysteries of the year by Lire magazine and won the Prix du Roman Noir as the best mystery novel translated into French for 2010.
ISBN: 978-0670022779; ISBN10: 0670022772; Imprint: Viking Adult; On Sale: 6/2/2011; Format: Hardcover; Pages: 320; $25.95
