The Western Star

By: Craig Johnson

Narrated by: George Guidall

The 13th novel in Craig Johnson's beloved New York Times best-selling Longmire series, the basis for the hit Netflix series Longmire.

Sheriff Walt Longmire 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 25 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 24 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.

©2017 Craig Johnson (P)2017 Recorded Books

Boy Howdy! Back with a Vengeance!

In 1972, Walt Longmire boards the Western Star with a copy of Murder on the Orient Express in hand.

And so, our expectations are set. The Star is a legendary steam train on her last, luxurious trip through Wyoming. As on the Orient Express, there are attendants, white-table-cloth-set dining car, brass fittings and overnight carriages. And, eventually, of course, there is murder.

This is the setup of the new Craig Johnson mystery, and it serves him and his readers well. At first, there seems to be little connection between this flash-back story of Walt's early days as Deputy Sheriff and the present-day plot line wherein he, Vic, Lucius, and Henry are paying widowed daughter Katy a visit to help her move into a new apartment with her baby Lola.

Then the connections begin to fall into place, the action picks up, and we are all speeding toward an explosive conclusion to both parts of the plot. It gives away nothing to note that The Western Star answers some old questions, displays a lot of heart, and includes the mother of all cliffhangers!

And yet Walt never actually reads Murder on the Orient Express!

Confusing timline

I had to listen to this book twice due to the sometimes confusing timeline which without warning would shift back 20 yrs. The relationship between Walt and Vic was not developed further, which was disappointing.. Considering what Vic has sacrificed, her character needs to be developed in depth.

The Western Star

Craig Johnson has you on the edge of your seat.

George Guidall voices this well.

Held up

Struggled to get from one time back to another. Still it did make you think.

I’m still unsure of what happened.

Varying timeframes make for a confusing story. Varying timeframes without any initial date references is nearly impossible to follow.