A review by kurtwombat
The Dark Horse by Craig Johnson

5.0

Walt Longmire, the main character of Craig Johnson's THE DARK HORSE, is very much a native of the Wyoming environs where he serves as a county Sheriff but at the same time, it is gradually revealed at a Wyoming pace that he is emerging from a place of pain and isolation. Also emerging is that the sources of his strength are also the fountainheads of his pain--family, the land and his job. The book creates a beautiful sense of place..even now a couple weeks after finishing the book I can still see the mesas and valleys and the dusty timeworn trails that join them to a degree that I can feel the grit of the land on my teeth. While the land is permanent it is not unchanging and that applies to his family as well. His parents are gone, as is his wife and soon his daughter is getting married. He is powerless against those changes so he runs to his job that with age has it's own uncertainties. The mystery at the center of this book would be entertaining in it's own right without all the marvelous textures applied throughout. The story revolves around the wife of a murdered rancher who admits that she killed her husband--Longmire thinks she is innocent and they might both be right. The term "dark horse" is described in the book as an outside or at least an unknown character that comes on as a surprise. This applies to Walt who is kind of lazily undercover throughout the book, but also many other characters who are not what they seem including some horses that are depicted vividly without making them cute or almost human. The real "dark horse" though is likely death, which hovers over the characters often in the form of loss. Eventually we lose everything and the trick is finding out what we need most and how to hold onto it as long as we can. That search pervades the book as well for many of the characters but especially for Longmire. Among the well drawn characters, the most fun is Longmire's Deputy Victoria...but don't call her that. She is also one of the highlights of the A&E TV series LONGMIRE based on this and other books in Johnson's series. Quite well done, the show created my interest in the books. Both are definitely worth a look.