146 pgs (A Longmire story)
The story begins on Christmas Eve. A young woman shows up at
Longmire’s office asking unusual questions about Lucian Conalley, Longmire’s
predecessor as sheriff. Longmire takes the woman to the nursing home Lucian now
resides at, but neither he nor Lucian has any idea who the woman is. It’s not
until she says the word “Steamboat” that both men know instantly who she is,
and they’re both transported back to an earlier Christmas Eve. This one in
1988, shortly after Walt became sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming.
A young girl had been seriously burned in a car accident and
the medical helicopter that picked her up at the scene had had to make an
emergency landing in Longmire’s jurisdiction because of a storm. The girl was
going to die if she didn’t get medical treatment beyond what they were capable
of giving her in the small Wyoming hospital and she needed to be transported to
Denver. But the storm that had forced the helicopter to land was also
preventing any airplanes from making the trip.
There was only one plane around that Longmire knew could
make the trip, Steamboat, an old
World War II bomber that hadn’t flown for decades. Fortunately, Walt also knew
someone who had flown a plane very similar to Steamboat in the war and thought he could probably convince him to
make the dangerous trip.
Spirit of Steamboat
is a great story. It’s easily read in one or two sittings and Johnson keeps the
action moving the whole time. But it’s not just an adventure story. Johnson
seemed to pack more emotions and feelings into this one than he has in any of
the rest of his books.
In hindsight, I wish I would have waited till December to
read this one. It’s a great story with a message worthy of that time of the
year.
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
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