Gain Any Other Name (Walt Longmire #10) Assembled By Craig Johnson Rendered As Print

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Craig Johnson has done it again, I am constantly amazed at how reliable this author is, Like the fabulous books by sitelinkDick Francis in which the heroes are always objective and honest Johnson has conjured up a very likeable hero in Walt Longmire: his common sense his integrity his dedication to community and family and his fierce sense of justice attract me like few other authors.
Every once in a while, we need books like these, books that inspire, that give us a sense of the world as it should be.
In this sense, Craig Johnson is gold in the hands to anyone that takes the time to read this series.


Winter in the far West is a favorite setting for this author, Nothing arbitray about that. Craig Johnson likes to localize his settings by taking advantage of isolated communities in his fictional Absaroka County, Wyoming, It brings the story home, so to speak, He also uses extreme frigid temperatures to further isolate the happenings in his novels, It's quite ingenious how he does this, The more localized, the more focused the reader becomes,

Johnson also likes to contrast this isolation with sharply defined pinpricks that come from the outside world, As if saying: "Wyoming is isolated but here's how it ties into the rest of the world" Johnson keeps a tight rein on motivation by infusing a high sense of "urgency" to the matters at hand: in this case the imminent birth of his daughter's baby far away in Pennsylvania and the threat of being disowned if he doesn't show up in time this while on the hunt for human traffickers right under his nose, and in particular a young woman he's intent on saving from a surefire death.
Johnson pits a new life against imminent death and it is beautifully and compassionately done,



Transportation is a thematic device, On the one hand, can he make it to the airplane in time for the birth in the midst of a devastating snow storm On the other, can he save the bondaged girl who is almost frozen to death and trapped on a coal freighter traveling through the same snow storm Transportation hints at destiny.
Again, expertly done.

The writing is filled with wondrous settings and descriptions evocative of Wyoming I traveled there last summer to experience it for myself.
Beautiful country, very isolated, very small communities, a different way of life, pink highways, rolling hills and mountains, and blue horizons.
Johnson captures it beautifully. Here's an example.

The Wrangler Motel sat on the eastern side of Gilette like it was run out of town.
With a lone strip of eight groundfloor and nine secondfloor units, it was anchored to the high plains by a decrepit cafe/bar, the Aces amp Eights, on one end and an equally run down office on the other.


For his readers, the setting comes alive with the simple phrase , . . like it was run out of town, We get it. I highly recommend this series, They are evenly paced, page turners, and filled with inspiration, heroes as they ought to be defined, and a return to all that is good.



Series

Craig Johnson has written ten novels in his Walt Longmire series.
Formerly a police officer he has also worked as a educator, cowboy and longshoreman, Awards include Tony Hillerman Award, Wyoming Historical Society Award, Wyoming Councl for the Arts Award, as well as numerous starred awards.
Johnson was also a board member of the Mystery Writers' of America,



Craig Johnson as an artist, as a man who paints with words ascribes to the essential characteristic of what makes art different from anything else: only it can portray the world as the artist thinks it ought to be as opposed to how it is.
"Now a days, it's really hard to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys, . . " he says in an interview, "But Walt's a pretty good guy, . . the kinda guy if my car slithered off the road on Iin a blizzard, he's the guy I'd want to help me out.
" Johnson admits to portraying Walt Longmire, the hero in this awardwinning series, as "The kinda guy my wife says I want to be in aboutyears.
"

Starting from his choice of book title all the way to the final period at the end of the book Johnson's prose fills the reader's soul with a longing for the good.
And where else is one to find it but in the fictional county of Absaroka, Wyoming and it's Sheriff Walt Longmire.
As with the work of sitelinkWilliam Kent Krueger Johnson introduces readers to the Western concept of cowboys and indians.
Growing up in the Netherlands, I read till late in the night the wildly popular series Winnetou and Old Shatterhand not available in the States.
When playing outsidemiles away from American soil, it wasn't cops and robbers we played, it was cowboys and indians.
It was this image of America I held in my mind as ayear old boy standing on the deck of the U.
S. S. Rotterdam as we sailed into New York Harbor and waited in the lines of Ellis Island to be granted access to my boyhood dreams.


Unlike older western novels, however, Johnson brings this cultural diversity into theth century and without delving into multiculturalism brings us to that mystical nether region between the two where native american and white man meet each other halfway.
Johnson's aim is at portraying a fictional world as it should be and this includes diversity, Henry, a native american is Walt's best friend, The indian community stands ready to aid the law, helps the white man bring justice regardless of race, color or creed.
Walt Longmire, in a hallucinatory fit, dances with the Cheyenne spirits who guide him to safety in the midst of a devastating blizzard even though the unconscious man slung over his shoulders is a perpatrator against a Native American woman.
Walt does not question his sanity afterwards, Craig Johnson's world is one we might all long for, . . and isn't that the purpose of art

Too often I read book reviews where the reviewers seem to place verisimilitude above fiction.
In my opinion, if you want reality, if you want to read about the way things are, then view a documentary, read a biography, check out reality TV.
This is fiction, and if an author changes reality to suit his notion for the book, so be it, . .

For some, the first in the series moves along a bit slowly, . . but to them I would say: give this writer time to paint his world as he sees fit, Books that concentrate on rural settings often have the advantage of highlighting the human condition in startling clarity, Distractions such as are found in urban settings removed, we see good and evil and compassion in a more profound way.
Wyoming's Absaroka County gives us this magnifying glass, I found the plot intriguing and the ending secondtonone, Truly, the titles are well chosen in these novels,

There's a huge fan base for Johnson's work out there, A fan base that is after values, the good kind, I'm reminded of my daughter's fascination with Taylor Swift, whose millions of fans adulate her for precisely the same reason: her vision of 'the good'.
There is a Renaissance occurring in a real world that at best can be portrayed as lost in the grey fog of compromised values a Renaissance that has caught the attention of not only our youth, but all ages.
And they are telling us what they want,

There's a reason AampE's Longmire series has been approved for Season/, The first season sported AampE'soriginalseries premier of all time with,million total viewers. I plan to read this entire series and after that, I plan to view the AampE series on Netflix, Johnson, remarking on the television series agrees that he ison board as the televised version is keeping very close to the books.


Unless there is a drastic divergence in subsequent Longmire novels, the series portion of this review will be the same for all the Walt Longmire books.


Enjoy! Any Other Name finds Walt outside his jurisdiction doing a favor for exboss Lucien Connally by investigating the suicide of an old friend.
Could it have anything to do with the missing persons case he was working on And can Walt close the investigation in time to fly to Philadelphia for the birth of his first grandchild

I haven't been reading the series in order, so I missed that some of the events are connected to the previous book, A Serpent's Tooth.
I'll need to catch up on that, I still enjoy these stories a lot, If I have one complaint it's that the action scenes in this book seem overthetop and Walt comes off as a kind of invincible action figure.
This man is always trudging through snow while dead American Indians talk to him, Is this the third book this has happened to him The bad guys weren't just bad but demented and if these were real people I would hope that everything they did was done to them twice.


I'm going to hold off on the next book in the series because although the series does have some humor, this one made me just sick to my stomach.
Even with that, good book/series, This latest book in the series gets a ten from me, I enjoyed every second of this book, Less Indian mysticism and more crackling good and funny dialogue, Two standouts here Lucian please don't ever kill him off, Mr, Johnson, and the scene with the Bison, If you've never read a Sheriff Longmire, start now, If you have, this one will not disappoint, Fans of Robert B Parker this is your Wyoming Spenser, Theth Walt Longmire novel finds Walt preparing to travel to Philadelphia to be there for his daughter as she gives birth to his first grandchild.
Its a special occasion, of course, and, naturally, Walt gets talked into taking on a case first, His predecessor as Sherriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming, Lucian Connally, requests Walts assistance in a missing persons case that also appears to tie into a suicide by one of Lucians old detective buddies.
The case takes Walt to the Deadwood and Black Hills of South Dakota,

I sometimes fear the Longmire novels that take Walt away from his home territory, mostly because that means we dont get to have the local characters participate.
Fortunately, this time out, both Henry Standing Bear and Walts undersheriff, Vic Moretti join him in the detective work, As always, plenty of humor pervades the prose and I found myself chuckling out loud several times, There is also plenty of danger to be had including another couple of lengthy sequences with Walt stranded in the middle of nowhere in a blizzard and having to walk or fight his way to safety.
Experienced Longmire readers will appreciate the spiritualistic aspects and almost poetic nature of Walts outlook on life, combined with his folksy humor.


I also enjoyed the pressurebuilding timeline built into this one as the imminent birth draws near, Will Walt finish up the case in time Or perhaps, more importantly, will he even survive to ever meet his grandchild

Hope these books keep coming out for a long time to come.
At this point I am beginning to question whether the Longmire books are intended to be read as stories or to be used solely as plot outlines for the TV series.
I haven't watched the series, but this book and A Serpent's Tooth felt a lot more like TVdriven stories than the more complicated stories found in the best books of this series The Cold Dish, Death Without Company, As the Crow Flies, and Hell is Empty.
I miss the more nuanced interactions with the characters other than Walt, In this book, Henry Standing Bear is just a buddy and Vic is really not much more than a cursing sidekick.
Still a decent enough read, but I'm really hoping the next book is written for the readers and not the viewers.
As I continue my Longmire series read, full disclosure requires that I openly admit I am a devoted fan of the Longmire television show on A/E and now Netflix and have enjoyed reading the previous books in the Longmire book series that inspired that show even more.
With that said, I am still doing my best to provide objective and an honest review,

“Any Other Name” is the tenth book in the “Longmire” mystery series, continuing the fictional adventures of Walt Longmire, Sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming his daughter, Cady, the worlds greatest lawyer his best friend, Henry Standing Bear his loyal and outspoken deputy, Vic Moretti his loyal and less outspoken deputy, and Dog, his faithful animal companion.


The story begins with Walt waiting for Cady to give birth to his first grandchild while he is asked by Lucian, the former sheriff and his previous, to review the suicide of a detective in a nearby county.
Lucian had an unspecified personal relationship with the detectives wife and wants Walt to find out if the man really took his own life, and if so, why.


The birth of Walts grandchild could involve complications so Cady is scheduled to be induced within a matter of days so with the clock running, Walt reviews the detectives caseload, and gets started with what he does best, investigating and irritating almost everyone he meets.
When Walts investigation leads him on the trail of three missing women, he enlists the aid of both Henry Standing Bear and Vic Moretti in his search.
Henry is tough as ever, but Vic is carrying the emotional baggage of her personal loss she suffered at the end of the last book "A Serpents Tooth", a secret she is not aware that Walt knows about.


As the story gets going the mystery is nicely layered and develops effectively for the reader, There are some definitely interesting characters, and strong challenges that Walt faces before the outcome is resolved, And there was an interesting reveal of information about a professional contract on Walts life that could lead to more conflict for him in future books.


There are some really good moments in this book, The interactions between Lucian and Walt are priceless, This time, it Lucian fires his gun several times, including at one particular restaurant pot of coffee, Walts moments with Vic are filled with tension and a special bonding, And I personally find that certain swear words are just funnier coming from Vics mouth than anyone else, These are some prime examples of what make the “Longmire” series so rich and special for the reader,

Now, let me mention two things that are starting to become a pattern and sorry to say beginning to be turn into an annoyance.
First, it seems like this is the third or fourth time that Longmire is racing through an investigation because he is supposed to be somewhere for his daughter Cady.
This can be a nice tool for the writer to run two plots a professional and personal one together in a story.
It just seems to be a pattern for Walt and I am starting to be annoyed with it for a couple of reasons.
One, investigations do not always resolve themselves in a nice and tidy manner in the timeframe required, Yes, I know UNLESS it is in a novel where the writer has total control, Got it. I think this time it really bugged me because Cadys argument was absolutely correct, Walt owed her his commitment and he should have showed it because he WANTED to, She is his first priority, Walts endless commitment to helping others, even over his own family members, is a habit he refuses to break, Someday, I truly fear he will pay an awful price, Maybe the writer could just tone this aspect down a little bit, Cady deserves some love and respect, Okay, I am done with the rants, And no, they did not take away from the greatness of the characters and the books, And yes, I know that many of you will say, “Yes, but thats Walt, And we love him for it, ” Got it.

Overall, “Any Other Name” is a strong story about different aspects of

family, including dealing with loss, birth, love, betrayal, guilt, and of course, a tunnelvision focus on justice the Longmire way.
It was also another strong entry in an excellent mystery series,
.