Books I Read in 2021, Vol. IV

THE DARK HORSE: A Longmire Mystery
Craig Johnson

"It's more than Mary Barsad's beauty and wealth that set her apart in a place where most criminal cases are generally 'Bubba shot Skeeter while they were drinking beer in the cab of Skeeter's truck and trying to figure out if Bubba's Charter Arms revolver was loaded.' .... Wade Barsad, a man with a dubious past and a gift for making enemies, burned his wife's horses in their barn; in return, she shot him in the head six times, or so the story goes. But Sheriff Walt Longmire doesn't believe Mary's confession and is determined to dig deeper."

This is the fifth book in the Longmire series, and I'm glad I've decided to read through all of them. Craig Johnson has a way with words that describe geography and character without getting bogged down in dry exposition. This book's central mystery is compelling, with a mostly-unexpected twist that doesn't feel like a gimmick.

First line: It was the third week of a high-plains October, and an unseasonably extended summer had baked the color from the landscape and had turned the rusted girders of the old bridge a thinned-out, tired brown.

Page 56/5th sentence: Sit down.

Last line: Dog started and made a move to fetch it, but I grabbed his collar, and we both watched as the black hat hung over the void of the Powder River, pitched to one side, and disappeared into the northbound water below.