Craig Johnson logra en esta quinta entrega de la serie del sheriff Longmire una magnífica combinación de policiaco clásico y temas de actualidad, siempre con el inhóspito paisaje de Wyoming como telón de fondo. Wade Barsad, un hombre de pasado oscuro y una pasmosa facilidad para crearse enemigos, prende fuego al establo de los caballos de su esposa, Mary. Ella, como venganza, le descerraja seis tiros a quemarropa. El sheriff Walt Longmire, a quien la versión oficial de lo sucedido no convence en absoluto, está decidido a esclarecer el asunto, incluso si el crimen queda fuera de su jurisdicción. Para ello, haciéndose pasar por un investigador del seguro, visita el rancho de los Barsad, en Absalom. Allí descubrirá que todos en el diminuto pueblo, incluidos el leal vaquero que trabajaba para los propietarios, un ranchero con debilidad por el alcohol y una camarera guatemalteca aficionada a resolver asesinatos, tenían motivos suficientes como para querer ver muerto a Wade...
Cuando encuentran a la anciana Mari Baroja envenenada en la residencia de ancianos de Durant, el sheriff ?Walt Longmire se ve envuelto en una investigación realizada cincuenta años atrás. La conexión entre la víctima y la comunidad vasca de Wyoming, la lucrativa industria de la extracción de metano y la vida privada de Lucian Connally, el antiguo sheriff... todo conduce a una intrincada red de medias verdades y turbias alianzas. Con la ayuda de su amigo, Henry Oso en Pie, su atractiva ayudante, Victoria Moretti, y el nuevo agente, Santiago Saizarbitoria, la tarea del sheriff ?Longmire será conectar los hechos actuales con los que tuvieron lugar en el pasado. Una muerte solitaria es un relato fascinante que ahonda en la atroz perversidad que se esconde donde menos la esperamos, incluso en los lugares más hermosos.
«Esta tercera entrega de la serie de Craig Johnson lo sitúa de nuevo al mismo nivel que Michael Connelly, Tony Hillerman y James Sallis. Su talento para dibujar personajes y lograr que sus reacciones físicas y emocionales ante la tragedia resulten verosímiles consigue que destaque y se haya hecho un hueco entre los iconos del género policiaco.» I Love a Mystery Walt Longmire lleva como sheriff del condado de Absaroka casi un cuarto de siglo, impartiendo justicia con chispeante sentido del humor. Es hora de tomarse un descanso y decide emprender un viaje con su buen amigo Henry Oso en Pie a Filadelfia, donde le espera una desagradable sorpresa: su hija, Cady, será víctima de un violento ataque que la dejará a las puertas de la muerte. Comienza entonces una investigación que provoca una reacción en cadena de violencia y muerte, y revela oscuros intereses políticos. Acompañado por Henry, por su ayudante Victoria Moretti, por Perro y por su familia al completo -un clan de policías de Filadelfia-, el sheriff Longmire tendrá que hacer valer la justicia del Oeste, donde las buenas acciones se acaban pagando. Castigo para los buenos ofrece a los seguidores de Walt Longmire todo el ingenio, la sofisticación y la tenacidad de cowboy a que nos tiene acostumbrados el sheriff de Wyoming. Pero también es una novela sobre la amistad y los vínculos familiares, sobre la necesidad de tener esperanza para afrontar los golpes duros de la vida.
"There's gold in them there hills!" ... and something deadly, too.
Danger the likes Boone McCreery has never seen is brewing in the Black Hills. Fresh in from Santa Fe, he's returned to Deadwood to seek justice for his uncle-and maybe to see about a girl. Little did he know his search for justice would have him stumbling into a hornets' nest beyond his worst nightmare. One thing is for certain: the trouble he and his compadres chance upon deep in the trees is a long way from ordinary.
Kick up your spurs and enjoy another rip-roaring, wild ride with Boone, Rabbit, Clementine, and Hank in the second book in the Deadwood Undertaker series.
Sometimes in life, the shortest distance between where you are and where you want to be is not necessarily the best route. Life often takes you on a much longer trail before you reach the goal you were destined for, and this circuitous route usually has valuable life lessons. These are the lessons that littered the path of the lives of Clancy and Caleb as they fled from the sorrow of the mountains and searched for answers in all the wrong places. Thinking the big city would provide refuge and salve for painful memories, they learned where ever they went there were new lessons to learn and memories to be made. With both having a love for the mountains and the often solitary lifestyle, the pull of the city would not readily release its grip but they would have to chart their own course.
With an opportunity provided by new found friendships and the possibility of a new direction for their lives, they seek to return to the mountains to find their own nirvana and a new beginning to establish their home and their legacy. The shining mountains and green valley of the Medicine Bow range that nestles in the Southern most part of Wyoming territory beckons them and the promise of a new life gives hope where there was none. Now is when they find out if they have the strength and stamina to build a new life in the mountains of the Medicine Bow.
All is sand and dust
Civilization teeters on the brink of collapse as the last vestiges of humanity toil beneath an unforgiving sun. Jethro finds himself the unwilling hero of a tale that brings godless men, lawless bandits, and the savage people that inhabit the fringe into conflict. With his own past haunting his every step, can he find redemption?
It hasn't rained in years. It may never rain again.
As the sheriff of Sycamore Flats, Hen Randolph has seen just about everything this lawless land has to offer. Quick in the saddle and quicker on the draw, he's cultivated a reputation for being a ruthless sharpshooter-and an unapologetic loner. Hen's had more than his fair share of complications and is happiest keeping his distance from the world. The trouble is, sometimes the world refuses to keep its distance from him.Laurel Blackthorne knows what dark and dangerous men are capable of, and she'll be damned if she lets another near her or her son again. But the sheriff seems different-an honest man despite his prickly exterior-and perhaps her only hope of saving herself from a dark past that refuses to let go.When danger comes calling, can she find it in herself to trust a man who always shoots true? And can this independent loner be convinced that he's ready for something truly worth fighting for?
Before the legend, there was the man...and a powerful destiny to fulfill. On October 26, 1881, three outlaws lay dead in a dusty vacant lot in Tombstone, Arizona. Standing over them-- Colts smoking-- were Wyatt Earp, his two brothers Morgan and Virgil, and a gun-slinging gambler named Doc Holliday. The shootout at the O.K. Corral was over-- but for Earp, the fight had just begun. Wyatt Earp was a man who craved fame, power and prominence. He came to Tombstone with a plan to get elected sheriff, and a dream of building the biggest business empire the booming mining town had ever seen. But by Christmas, both his brothers had been struck down, and their assassins were coming after him and Doc Holliday. For Earp, a man of ambition and pride, it would mean putting aside his dream for one last fight...not for glory, but revenge.
Introducing a new western hero in the grand Johnstone tradition: a mining town saloonkeeper who serves up justice like a shot of liquor-150-proof. JOHNSTONE COUNTRY. BOOMTOWN JUSTICE. Rollie Finnegan is a man of few words. As a former Pinkerton agent with two decades of experience under his belt, he uses his stony silence to break down suspects and squeeze out confessions. Hence the nickname Stoneface. Over the years, he's locked up plenty of killers. Now he's ready to make a killing-for himself ... There's gold in the mountains of Idaho Territory. And the town of Boar Gulch is a golden opportunity for a tough guy like Finnegan. But when he arrives, the local saloon owner is gunned down in cold blood-and Finnegan makes a cold calculation of his own. Instead of working in a mine, he'll buy the saloon. Instead of gold, he'll mine the miners. And instead of getting dirty, he'll clean up this grimy little boomtown once and for all-with his own brand of Stoneface justice ...
They sing songs about Matthew Johnson. The hero of dime novels, Matt won national fame during a range war in Idaho when he shot and killed an outlaw-and former saddle pal. But the past seventeen years have been an alcoholic blur rather than a heroic journey. Gone are the days when he was a free-wheeling cowboy, swapping poems with his best friend on the cattle ranges. The West has modernized-and practically disappeared-when Matt arrives in Denver in 1894 as the newly appointed US marshal for the state of Colorado.
The cowboy turned lawman inherits a state on the brink of collapse. The silver crash has ruined the economy, railroaders are striking, a range war is looming, corruption is rampant, and a rumored gold strike on the Southern Ute reservation threatens to turn into a bloodbath. Slowly, Matt realizes why he got the job. His supporters figure that the man who killed Jeff Hancock will either stay too drunk to realize what's happening or take their bribes and look the other way. After all, the songs being sung about Matthew Johnson these days are more insulting than glorifying. Instead of the hero who stopped a range war, he is usually thought of as a man who murdered his best friend in exchange for the appointment as Idaho's US marshal. And he hasn't been sober in years.
What no one has counted on is the love of a woman who has had her own share of hard times and bad decisions. Or the fact that there's a special breed of man who will fight with his last breath to regain his dignity and self-respect. If Matt can overcome his demons and past, schoolkids might start singing a new verse to an old song.
High in the Rockies lay the Bayou Salade, a lush beaver-rich valley so untouched that the few white men who had seen it called it paradise. But for Scratch Bass, his young partner Josiah Paddock, and the two Indian women they loved, this paradise would open up a hell of violence. Pursued by a vengeful Arapaho raiding party, Scratch will lead his small band through a flurry of arrows all the way to Taos itself. Yet the trail of blood will not end there. For in St. Louis an old enemy waits, and the time is ripe for Scratch to settle a ten-year score. Through the desert known as the Journey of Death to the rough-and-tumble town of St. Louis, Scratch and Josiah will defy the wilderness to bury the past-and a blackhearted killer-once and for all.
A man is only as good as his word. A man's word is the cornerstone of his character according to Ezekiel, Jeremiah's adopted father and mentor. Raised among the Arapaho with values according to their culture blended with the standards of a runaway slave and the remnants of the memory of his natural father, Jeremiah must now take the measure of his own character. After a tragedy that sweeps through the village of his wife's people and their own home, Jeremiah gives his word to Black Kettle and joins with his life-long friend, Broken Shield and sets out to find their new winter home. With the only possible site lying between the land of their avowed enemies, the Kicked in the Bellies Crow nation and the territory of the marauding Blackfeet, the two friends land in the middle of a battle between these two sworn adversaries.
With the responsibility of the fate of the entire Arapaho village resting upon them, and opposition from both nature and enemy forces, they must overcome unimaginable obstacles for Jeremiah to prove that his word and his promise are the measure of a man with character that refuses to be compromised or defeated.
