Short Story Wednesday: Tooth and Claw: A Longmire Story by Craig Johnson

Tooth and Claw: A Longmire Story by Craig Johnson takes readers to late December 1970 and the North Slope of Alaska. Long before Walt Longmire became Sheriff in Wyoming, he was head of security at an oil rig. Henry Standing Bear has come up from the lower 48 to see him and finds Walt drinking heavily and isolating himself. Vietnam took a toll and Walt is coping by drinking and staying away from the woman he loves, Martha.

 

The isolation and the cold makes some people snap. The latest causality of a breakdown was George Frazier. Frazier works for Walt and was supposed to be on the security detail for a U.S. Geological Survey team doing core testing out on the ice the next day. The day before the Winter Solstice and it will have just 3 hours and 42 minutes of daylight.

 

With Fraizer out, that means Walt Longmire has to go on what should be a relatively easy run. Relatively easy for the artic weather conditions. Henry Standing Bear tags along as he had been complaining about not doing anything, but playing chess in Longmire’s cramped quarters. Good thing he goes too because what should have been a relatively easy same day excursion turns into fight for survival against a massive polar bear that, seemingly, can’t be killed. Throw in a ghost ship, bad weather, and members of the excursion party being killed left and right, and the result is one heck of a pulp adventure read.

 

Tooth and Claw: A Longmire Story by Craig Johnson is one heck of a good read. A fast-moving novella, it comes down to the most primitive battle there is --- man vs nature. The getting there is very much well worth it.

 

Make sure you read Scott Montgomery’s far more detailed review here at his The Hard Word site as well as the author’s recent appearance at The Poisoned Pen and shared by Lesa Holstine here. 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/41xy5Oo

 

While I had hoped to read this months ago via NetGalley, the publisher, Penguin Group Viking, denied me as they often do, so I had to wait for Dallas Public Library to get it. They finally did. My reading copy was a digital one through the Libby/OverDrive app and read in one day. 

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2024