Review: "A Serpent’s Tooth: A Walt Longmire Mystery" by Craig Johnson

It is fall in Wyoming as A Serpent’s Tooth: A Walt Longmire Mystery opens and Walt Longmire, sheriff of Absaroka county, is spending at least part of the beautiful afternoon at the funeral of Dulcie Meriwether. Walt didn't know Dulcie, but he is there because Mike Thomas wanted Walt to have a conversation with his aunt Barbara Thomas. Apparently somebody has been doing work on her home and occasionally eating some of her food the last couple of weeks. The elderly woman believes it is the work of angels working on behalf of God.

Walt and Vic suspect human intervention instead of celestial guidance. Barbara leaves a list of what needs to be done and things are fixed while she is away from home. Since she is away from home right now it seems to be a really good idea to go over and check out her house. They find a young man working under the kitchen sink who manages to get away from Vic despite her best efforts. They soon learn that the young man is Cord Lynear and a small part of a much larger and growing problem from Wyoming to Texas and numerous places in between.

This latest in the series from author Craig Johnson is another good one. While much of has ripped from the headlines type of feel to it with the militant  polygamist Mormon angle, there are enough twists and turns to make it work. So too does the continuing character development regarding the relationship between Walt and Vic. That relationship is a major storyline focus here in this novel while they go about their jobs with nearly everyone else getting very little or no attention at all.

What didn't work so well for this reader was more of a personal problem. As trumpeted across my large print copy from the library in case one didn’t already know, these books are also the basis of the Longmire series on A&E. While I never have totally accepted the casting of the TV show, it was clear while reading this that the TV characters have fully taken over the book series in my mind. While reading this book I heard the voices of the TV characters saying the lines. As a result the read seemed a little off at times to me. Clearly that is this reviewer’s personal problem and not the fault of the author.

A Serpent's Tooth: A Walt Longmire Mystery is the ninth book in the series and another good one well worth your time.  Now if I could just get the TV voices out of my head...

A Serpent’s Tooth: A Walt Longmire Mystery

Craig Johnson

http://www.craigallenjohnson.com

Thorndike Press

http://www.gale.cengage.com/thorndike

May 2013

ISBN# 978-1-4104-5781-3

Large Print Hardback (also available as a regular hardback, e-book, audio book)

501 Pages

$28.79

Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano, Texas Public Library System. A big time thank you especially to the staff of the Haggard Library for all they do.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2013