Book Review: "The Cold Dish" by Craig Johnson

Introducing Wyoming’s Sheriff Walt Longmire in this riveting novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Hell Is Empty and As the Crow Flies, the first in the Walt Longmire Mystery Series, the basis for LONGMIRE, the hit A&E original drama series 
  
Fans of Ace Atkins, Nevada Barr and Robert B. Parker will love this outstanding first novel, in which New York Times bestselling author Craig Johnson introduces Sheriff Walt Longmire of Wyoming’s Absaroka County. Johnson draws on his deep attachment to the American West to produce a literary mystery of stunning authenticity, and full of memorable characters. After twenty-five years as sheriff of Absaroka County, Walt Longmire’s hopes of finishing out his tenure in peace are dashed when Cody Pritchard is found dead near the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. Two years earlier, Cody has been one of four high school boys given suspended sentences for raping a local Cheyenne girl. Somebody, it would seem, is seeking vengeance, and Longmire might be the only thing standing between the three remaining boys and a Sharps .45-70 rifle. 
  
With lifelong friend Henry Standing Bear, Deputy Victoria Moretti, and a cast of characters both tragic and humorous enough to fill in the vast emptiness of the high plains, Walt Longmire attempts to see that revenge, a dish best served cold, is never served at all. - from Amazon.com

I had come across this TV series title several times on Netflix before actually taking the time to watch it. Needless to say, I found it hard not to like Robert Taylor's portrayal of Walt Longmire. After having watched a season-plus of episodes, I decided I needed to read the books, to see what was missing. I was not disappointed.

As a big fan of Robert B. Parker's series of Spenser, this quickly jumped into a series I wanted to read. Though it does, obviously, start with book one mirroring one of the episodes from the television series, there are enough differences I feel like I am not reading a novelization. Johnson does well in bringing what would normally appear mundane for a small-time sheriff into the a mystery that requires interaction with other characters as eccentric as the sheriff in order to solve this crime of murder. With a nice twist I was not expecting at the end, Johnson has shown he has the feel of a great western-mystery writer.