My Washington Times Review of 'Land Of Wolves'

The Washington Times published my review of Craig Johnson’s Land of Wolves. 

I first became acquainted with Craig Johnson’s fictional modern-day Western sheriff by watching the A&E TV series “Longmire,” which is based on Mr. Johnson’s novels. (The show is now on Netflix).

Australian actor Robert Taylor portrayed Walt Longmire and Katee Sackhoff portrayed his deputy, Victoria “Vic” Moretti, a transplanted South Philly Italian-American and former Philadelphia cop. Lou Diamond Phillips portrayed Henry Standing Bear, Longmire’s best friend, and the series also offered a good number of other fine cast members.

I liked the Walt Longmire character, a big man who is tough, taciturn, intelligent, fair, and possesses a dry sense of humor. I also liked the rural crime stories, so I began reading the series of novels.

In his last outing in the novel “Depth of Winter,” Walt Longmire, the sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming, headed to Mexico to take on Tomas Bidarte, the head of a vicious drug cartel, who had kidnapped the sheriff’s daughter. He rescued her and killed the drug lord in a brutal fight, which left the sheriff’s body, as well as his mind, scarred.

In “Land of Wolves” we find a thinner, weaker and more reticent sheriff, who loses himself in moments of staring off into space. But the hanged body of a migrant Chilean shepherd, Miquel Hernandez, which may be a case of suicide or murder, moves the sheriff and his deputies to investigate. 
  
… “When you see a wolf, you can’t help feeling impressed,” Walt Longmire, the novel’s narrator tells us. “Maybe it’s because we’re so used to being around their more domesticated cousins, but this animal is something else. Aside from all the crap that you see on TV and in the movies or even in badly written books, they’re not the slathering beasts just outside the glow of the campfire; there’s only one word that comes to mind when I’ve ever seen one in the wild: empathic.

“It’s like they’re reading your mind, because they have to know what you’re thinking to simply survive.”

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/sep/11/book-review-land-of-wolves/