The Western Star

by Craig Johnson
295 pgs  (Longmire series #13)

The Western Star is the 13th book in Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire series and I'm excited by the fact that it's one of my favorites so far. It tells two distinct, but interconnected stories, both of which involve the most ruthless killer Walt ever went up against.

The first story took place back in 1972, when Walt was a brand-new deputy with the Absaroka County Sheriff's department. He was accompanying Sheriff Lucian Connelly and 23 other Wyoming sheriffs on the Western Star, a sheriff's train that ran from Cheyenne to Evanston, when one of the sheriffs is killed. Walt, who is the newest and least experienced lawman on the train, is the one who identifies the killer and it's this investigation that solidifies his decision to become a Wyoming lawman.

The second story takes place in current times and involves the same killer from the Western Star. Every four years, Walt travels to Cheyenne to complete his weapons recertification and he plans that trip to coincide with the scheduled four-year parole hearings for the Western Star killer. Walt has made it a point over the years to attend each of the parole hearings in order to ensure parole is never granted. This year, armed with a diagnosis of less than a year to live, the man who has spent nearly the last 50 years behind bars, is trying to get a compassionate release, so he can live out what little time he has left outside of a jail cell.

As the story jumps back and forth between the two time frames, Johnson does a fantastic job of building towards the book's conclusion. And while this one ends on a bit of a cliff hanger, it's still a very satisfying conclusion. Fans of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express should enjoy the book that much more, as it's clearly an homage to it, and a worthy one at that.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★