This man is brilliant. Craig Johnson, that is. Well, Longmire is pretty smart too.

I’ve been making my way through the Longmire novels available in our local library app, Libby. I believe I am currently reading the last one they offer, “Dry Bones.” A quick Internet search has shown me that there are at least twelve more novels I knew nothing about.

I started at the beginning of what Libby offers … “The Cold Dish.” In order, I have also read: “Death Without Company,” “Kindness Goes Unpunished,” “Another Man’s Moccasins,” “The Dark Horse,” “Junkyard Dogs,” “Hell is Empty,” “As the Crow Flies,” “A serpent’s Tooth,” and “Any Other Name,” which brings me to “Dry Bones.”

Craig Johnson

Johnson hit the jackpot when he created Walt Longmire. Well, and all the other main characters that arc through his novels.

He imbues his characters with so much realism you feel immediately that you know them, have always known them, and will always know them. His second and third tier characters are also very well fleshed out. You can tell that Johnson loves the world and characters that he has created.

I love Longmire’s sense of humor. Vic’s foul mouth is a delight. And his portrayals of Native Americans … or should I say Indians (the author pointed out in one of his novels that many of us are native to America) is encyclopedic, compassionate and enlightening.

Johnson has painted Longmire as something of a superman. Longmire gets physically beaten in one way or another in just about every novel. But he keeps coming back for more. The character goes knowingly into situations where he is sure he might not survive. Longmire has a huge moral streak and drive to do his duty that other characters find to be a bit excessive. But to me, it’s what makes Longmire so appealing.

Johnson also sets a good scene from time to time. He isn’t excessive with his descriptions, so when he throws one in, it is especially poignant. You can see the sunset, or the moon rise. You can smell the air after the rain. You can feel it in your bones. And it’s not just to paint a picture. He lets you know how the characters feel about what they are sensing.

Some authors go on and on with the scene-setting. Some authors put so little in that the novel feels poor. Johnson gets it just right.

I’ll be very sad when I finish reading “Dry Bones.” I will check out our local library for the rest of the books on the list. Hopefully, they will have them and I just missed them somehow.

I will say, though, that the formatting of the earliest eBook versions was a little off-putting. It made it a bit difficult to track who was where, who was talking, and what exactly was going on. There were no breaks of any kind to let you know a change of scene was about to occur and you would jump from a conversation in Longmire’s vehicle to him talking with someone else in a diner, as an example. In later novels, he fixed that. Or his publisher did.

I can highly recommend Craig Johnson and his Longmire series of novels. They are a whole lot of fun, boy howdy!

Images courtesy of Amazon.com, Wikipedia, and Lib Quotes, respectively