Saturday, September 06, 2008

REVIEW: Another Man's Moccasins


Title: Another Man's Moccasins
Author: Craig Johnson
ISBN: 9780670018611
Protagonist: Sheriff Walt Longmire
Setting: present-day Absaroka County, Wyoming
Series: #4
Rating: A

First Line: "Two more."

When the body of a young Vietnamese woman is found alongside I-25 in Absaroka County, Sheriff Walt Longmire is determined to discover both her identity and the identity of her killer. What he doesn't expect is for this case to force him to confront the similarities between this case to his first homicide investigation as a Marine in Vietnam. To further complicate matters (because we all know nothing ever runs smoothly for Walt), a homeless Crow Indian is found living in a nearby culvert and in possession of the murdered girl's purse. An open-and-shut case, right? Not to Walt. He doesn't believe Virgil White Buffalo is a murderer, and he's wondering why the murdered girl had a photo of Walt in her purse.

Flashbacks to Walt's first investigation in Vietnam are woven throughout the present case. At first those flashbacks annoyed me a bit, but that rapidly wore off as I realized they gave me a glimpse of Walt as a young man--at how he perceived the world and those around him, and at how he reacted to being so far away from home. Walt isn't very different from that young man in a strange country back in 1968. Experience has weathered him a bit, but he's still a man who's concerned with the welfare of others.

"You cannot correct the path he has chosen; it is his path. The only thing you can do is not punish him for something he has not done."

"I'm not looking to punish him, Henry, but there's got to be something better for the man than living under I-25."

His face remained impassive as he answered. "Perhaps, but that is something for him to discover, not for you to give him."

We walked along. "Well, maybe I can help."

The Bear smiled. "I know. This is not the first set of moccasins in which you have walked."

Walt Longmire has a long-standing habit of walking a mile in another person's moccasins. It is one of the many reasons why he's become one of my favorite characters in fiction.


2 comments:

  1. Between your review and Jen's review of 'Cold Dish,' I can hardly wait to read this author's work. I have 'Cold Dish' on order and it should arrive sometime this week. Y'all have made me antsy.

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  2. Good! I just hope you enjoy it as much as I did. A mystery group I belong to at Yahoo Groups is having a series discussion of the first three books in the series.

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