Back from a difficult trip to Mexico (see The heart of winter at the same publisher) where he seems to have finally gotten rid of Tomas Bidarte, his sworn enemy, the angry Sheriff Walt Longmire. Physically diminished and emaciated, he recovered poorly from his “travel injuries” when he was informed of the disappearance of a shepherd and an attack on a sheep in the flock he was tending near the town. We suspect a lone wolf or, worse, a pack on the loose. While examining the area on the high plateau, Longmire encounters an imposing old wolf… and it doesn’t take long to find the shepherd’s corpse.
This is only the beginning of his problems. Because in Absaroka County, Wyoming, in the heart of the Big Horn, things always tend to get exponentially more complicated. The sheriff and his team discover that the herdsman has been hanged from a tree and his remains, probably attacked by the animal that killed the sheep. Consequently, in addition to having to solve a murder, Walt will also find himself stuck between those who cry wolf by wanting to kill the beast(s) as quickly as possible and those – the one, rather – who defend them.
The total disaster
But it’s not just that. By digging a little, he realizes that he knows Extapare well, the old “Basque” who employed the shepherd; his predecessor, Lucian, had dealings with his family, and Longmire is wary. Especially since the disappearances will soon pile up one after the other while the TV cameras come to town to cover “the case of the man-killing wolves”. So old Abe Extapare disappears with his grandson just as his father came to pick up the child. And while we’re at it, the son-in-law also suddenly disappears. All this while Walt is forced to welcome a computer into his office and, above all, to learn how to use it. The total disaster.
Add to all these sulfurous ingredients a hint of pedophilia which floats in the air on social networks without us really knowing who it is; an abdominal abscess that bursts painfully in the middle of a rescue episode; a “werewolf expert” who comes to meet the sheriff; the damn computer, of course… and now Walt Longmire begins to doubt. As they say in the Basque Country as in all of Spain: one wolf can hide another.
This incredible story once again highlights the immense talent as a storyteller of Craig Johnson – and of his appointed translator, it must be emphasized once again. His endearing characters, whom we have known since his very first books, those also who appear on the periphery and whom the novelist knows how to define in a powerful sentence, his humor, his sense of immanent justice and the beauty of the world, despite everything , all this makes him an exceptional author, all categories combined. Again !