Onyx reviews: The Longmire Defense by Craig Johnson

Reviewed by Bev Vincent, 10/22/2023

One wouldn't expect the discovery of a seventy-year-old rifle to generate more than historical interest. True, the weapon is associated with the long-ago murder of Bill Sutherland, a former state accountant, and it has long been theorized that Lloyd Longmire did the deed, but that doesn't explain why powerful people try to keep Absaroka County Sheriff Walt Longmire from digging into the past. Walt had a fraught relationship with his grandfather but he intends to investigate even if it means proving what has long been suspected.

It was Dog who uncovered the gun, hidden on the mountain side where Walt was searching for a missing tourist. Walt immediately recognized the rare and distinctive model for what it was. Amazingly, the bullet extracted from Sutherland's corpse is still in evidence, so he sends the gun and bullet to the state capital for forensics investigation. He gets a supportive call from a woman—who also works in state finance—who says she's Sutherland's granddaughter. As Walt digs deeper, he discovers that two other people associated with the case died or went missing within a year of the murder.

As part of his investigation, Walt decides to disinter Sutherland's body, enlisting the help of the local gravedigger. Although unauthorized, their efforts to find the corpse fail. However, someone is determined to dissuade them from pursuing the search, badly wounding the gravedigger. Things are getting serious.

Of course, things are never simple in Walt's world. An ill-advised marriage proposal to his under sheriff, Vic, causes a rift in their relationship. She's taken aback by his abrupt proposal and starts taking personal days off, going completely off the grid and, ultimately, disappearing completely. Walt wants to try to reach her but everyone—including people without a good track record with relationships—advises him to let her be for a while. She is the heir apparent to his job (will he retire or won't he?), although there are others lobbying to be his replacement.

The case takes him to Casper—where he gets to visit his daughter Cady and granddaughter, with his old boss Lucian Connally in tow. Someone is stalking Walt, though, and an archivist assisting him in gathering information is assaulted in her home and left for dead. Walt has an unpleasant run-in with another state official (he threatens to throw the man through a window), people are fired from their positions without explanation, and suspicious characters start popping up in Durant, some seemingly friendly, others less so. Plus Walt has to deal with the once-missing tourist, who holes up in local motels without demonstrating any ability to pay her bills.

It's a complex case, but Walt is going to see it through to the end. The title refers to a chess maneuver. Learning to play chess from Lloyd Longmire is one of the few pleasant memories he has of the man. The case takes him back to his grandfather's ranch house and spread, a place he has deliberately avoided for many years, where he meets up with a childhood friend who is now an ATF agent. It becomes the setting for a harrowing and violent climax, as everyone with something to hide converges on Walt to force him stop his investigation one way or another.

There's a certain comfort in returning to a familiar series, especially when the author finds new ways to shake up the characters. Johnson has a unique view on Wyoming and its people, especially the residents of Durant. Sometimes secondary characters are pushed to the background (Henry is rarely seen in this novel) and sometimes they emerge in interesting ways (developments regarding Saizarbitoria, Longmire's Basque deputy, show the character in a new light). Longmire himself is getting longer in the tooth, although he can still throw a punch or a bullet when needed.

Johnson also has a few interesting literary quirks. For one thing, he seems obsessed with eye color. Characters are often defined by the color of their eyes, and the motion and focus of eyes often drive the action. People turn their eyes on Walt, look up at him or down at him. He also has the habit of beginning scenes without explaining who is speaking to whom. It can take several paragraphs for the identities of the participants in the scene to become clear. These are small quibbles, but they can be sometimes distracting or disorienting.

This is the nineteenth novel to feature Walt Longmire and company. Johnson has laid hints about Longmire's grandfather over the years and this novel gives him the opportunity to delve into that relationship in detail. By the end of the book, Walt is forced to re-evaluate a man who he seems to despise while at the same time embarking on a new life adventure.