Wyoming has many treasures, one of which is Craig Johnson's Sheriff Walt Longmire mystery series; Junkyard Dogs (Viking, May) is number six. As Sheriff Walt opens up more and more, the reader sees how much he cares about the people of Durant, Wyo.—espe-cially his deputies. Although he gets battered around, his sense of humor is at full tilt and the laughs are abundant. A scene involving a car, a ope, and the local dump's elderly owner is laugh-out-loud funny. The mystery begins when a thumb is found in a Styrofoam cooler at the dump/junkyard. The residents of Durant and the owner of an upscale housing development that borders the dump are in conflict, and the tension escalates when murder enters the picture and more people become suspects. Johnson's welldefined descriptions of Wyoming life and his vivid, realistic characters make for first-class entertainment—which is why I've claimed that this is the best mystery series being written today.
Galleytalk: Week of 5/31/10
May 31, 2010
A version of this article appeared in the 05/31/2010 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: