Reviews for Depth Of Winter
by Craig Johnson
Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
An extended battle for kin and spirit in the Mexican desert.This 14th installment of Johnson's Longmire series follows Absaroka County's redoubtable sheriff, Walt Longmire, deep into the Chihuahuan desert in search of his daughter, Cady, who has been kidnapped by Toms Bidarte, the head of a drug cartel and a very bad guy. After a preliminary skirmish with American authorities, who try to restrain him from entering Mexico, Longmire acquires a band of companions and sets off across a forbidding landscape, hoping to reach Bidarte's stronghold before Cady is killed. In a nice early episode, Longmire is passed off to a Mexican colonel as Bob Lilly, the Dallas Cowboy star; other obstacles are not so easily overcome, and as Longmire nears his objective, the dead mount. Several characters warn Longmire that he will need to be ruthless to succeed, but even as the dead accumulate, Longmire adheres to his own moral code. He refrains from killing expat David Culpepper, one of Bidarte's lieutenants, when he has the opportunity because Culpepper is at his mercy, and the contrast between Bidarte's amoral readiness to kill for little or no reason and Longmire's reluctance to take a life if not compelled to do so is possibly overdrawn. The action spans a few days around the Da de los Muertos, which provides somewhat stereotypical opportunities for masked shenanigans and drink-addled confusion. Longmire himself is a nice creation, as ready with a reference to antiquity or a quote from literature as he is handy in a brawl; his allies are satisfyingly varied and colorful, and the bad guys are ruthless and unprincipled. This is a rip-roaring adventure, and if Longmire seems uncannily able to recover from blows to the head and other injuries that would disable a lesser man, well, that's what it takes to defeat this "monster among monsters."The sheriff as the spirit of Quixote, riding a mule to the rescue. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Bestseller Johnson's harrowing 14th mystery featuring Sheriff Walt Longmire (after 2016's The Western Star) takes the Wyoming lawman to Mexico, where ruthless killer Tomás Bidarte holds Walt's grown daughter, Cady, captive in a remote mountain compound in the middle of the Chihuahua desert. The six-foot-four Walt faces formidable obstacles in rescuing Cady, not least being his attention-drawing size. Fortunately, one of his allies on this suicidal mission, a blind man known as the Seer, thinks to pass him off as real-life retired NFL star Bob Lilly, a ruse that works for a while. Once Walt and his team arrive at the compound, the trouble really begins. The tension lets up only intermittently as Walt lurches from one dire situation to another. Humorous asides and witty dialogue provide welcome relief from the often grim circumstances in which Walt finds himself, including a stint in the stocks during a Day of the Dead celebration and the climactic confrontation with Bidarte, who plays matador to Walt's bull. Johnson is in fine form. Author tour. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
In this 14th installment of the "Longmire" series (after The Western Stars), the Absaroka County sheriff is in Mexico searching for his daughter Cady, who was kidnapped by the ruthless head of a drug cartel. The men are not strangers; their history has been bloody and violent, including the murder of Longmire's son-in-law and serious injury to Longmire's undersheriff. Longmire must save his daughter before she's auctioned off to the highest bidder among his many enemies. Without backing from the American or Mexican governments, he's on his own, relying on assistance from people he meets on his journey. These include a physician, a mute young man, a blind legless mystic, and a beautiful woman with nerves of steel. Johnson's descriptions of the desert landscape, the burning heat of the sun, and the celebratory Mexican festivals are vivid and complement the unfolding plot as Longmire penetrates the cartel's headquarters. VERDICT It's a new setting for Longmire, but old scores are settled in this page-turner fans will love. [See Prepub Alert, 3/12/18.]-Patricia Ann Owens, formerly at Illinois Eastern -Community Coll., Mt. Carmel © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
The fourteenth Walt Longmire novel picks up shortly after The Western Star (2017) left off, with the Wyoming sheriff now in Mexico on a desperate mission to rescue his kidnapped daughter, Cady, from the villainous Tomás Bidarte. With a motley crew of locals in support and not much more than a wing, a prayer, and a small arsenal of guns Longmire heads to the small mountain town where she's being held in an old monastery with not much more than a wing, a prayer, and a small arsenal of guns. While Longmire remains the goodhearted stalwart we've come to know and love, this novel has a different feel, due in equal parts to the unfamiliar territory, the siege-of-the-fortress plot, and the absence of his Absaroka County supporting cast. Series fans will likely welcome the changes, at least temporarily, as Longmire masters repeated capture and gunpoint negotiations with his usual gruff élan. Despite the horrors of drug-cartel violence and Longmire's own fears for his daughter, it all has the feel of an action serial; no matter how many bodies drop, the good guy's going to come out OK and that's OK with us.--Keir Graff Copyright 2018 Booklist
