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Next to Last Standby Craig Johnson Hardcover, 320 pg. Read: September 23-25, 2020 |
I placed my hands on my hips and stared at the recently departed. It was true that he wasn’t a man I particularly liked, but fate had brought him in contact with me and now he was dead wand that made me partially responsible….
“Earth to Walt.” I turned and looked at her as she smiled. “So, you’re getting pissed, huh?” She stood beside me, toeing a tuft of grass. “There’s always a point where you start taking it personally. I like that part because that’s when shit starts happening, and I like it when shit starts happening.” She turned her face toward me, listening as I clenched my fists, like a cinch being tightened ion a saddle. “So, is shit about to start happening?”
“I believe so.”
What’s Next to Last Stand About?
An elderly resident at the Veterans’ Home of Wyoming (“The Sailor’s & Soldier’s Home of Wyoming”) dies of an apparent heart attack—which saddens, Walt, he liked Charley Lee Stillwater (and Cady loved the man). But what gets him coming back is the fact that among his possessions is a shoebox full of hundred dollar bills. Ten thousand of them, in fact. Where does a man like Charley Lee come up with that? And is there a clue among the surprising amount of books about art, art history, and General Custer in his room?
And the presence of a million dollars does cast a little doubt on the heart attack if only to be thorough. That’s a great motive to kill someone—or at least the beginning of one. Things develop from there as they tend to when Walt gets curious. He ends up involving art experts from all over the state (and even the world)—experts who may be more interesting than the art they’re discussing.
I want to spend more time at The Sailor’s & Soldier’s Home—I liked both the staff and the residents we spent time with. The souped-up motorized wheelchairs were great, and the people in them were even better. I just hope we don’t need another semi-suspicious death to get Walt back there.
The Custer material really serves as an excuse for Henry Standing Bear to sound off about Custer and the battle of Little Big Horn. I’d love to hear a few history lectures from Henry, the little bits we got here were enough to make me want more. Walt, Vic, and Henry (with an assist from Lucian) also give their (almost universally negative) opinions about all the movies made about the man and event. The Custer, Little Big Horn, and cinematic material alone is worth the effort to read this book.*
* Of course, with Johnson’s style, there’s not a lot of effort involved, so that may come across as faint praise.
Next to Last Stand in relation to the Rest of the Series
There’s a new staff member for the Absaroka Sheriff Department, and at least one member of the current staff is preparing to leave (how many is yet to be determined). Johnson either has big plans, or he’s writing himself into a corner where he’ll have to make some. I’m pretty curious about it either way.
But the bigger tie to the rest of the story is where this stands in relation to Depth of Winter. I enjoyed The Western Star, and thought the conclusion was a doozy. This led into Depth of Winter, which was good, but…wasn’t a Walt Longmire book. Land of Wolves focused on Walt’s recovery and was closer to what I expect in a Longmire book. Walt’s not back at 100%, physically or mentally. But he’s closer to it than he was in Land of Wolves, close enough that the book gets closer and closer to a typical Longmire read the further we get. Something about this case sparked whatever it was in Walt that he’d allowed to grow dormant since the last chapter of The Western Star.
It’s never really spelled out—it’s just obvious to those of us who’ve spent 16 books (plus the short stories) with the Sheriff. I’m not looking for the series to stagnate. I appreciate that every book in the series has a different feel than the others, and I don’t want that to change. I want Walt, Vic, Sancho, and the rest to develop. But there’s something about every non-Depth of Winter novel that remains quintessentially the same—I was more than a little worried that Johnson had left that behind in favor of the guy who took on a small army in Mexico. I’m glad to see I was probably worried about nothing.
The Return of an Old Friend
Lonnie Littlebird—Chief of the Cheyenne Nation and Tribal Elder—is back! It’s been too, too long since his smiling presence has graced this series. Um hmm, yes, it is so.
I’ve got nothing more to say about him, but as always, I perked up when I saw him. I just enjoy him (and am looking forward to hearing George Guidall’s narration of the audiobook, I like his Lonnie Littlebird).
Well, I guess I know what the Next Book is About?
There’s this subplot involving Henry Standing Bear, Tribal Police Chief Lolo Long (from As the Crow Flies, Dry Bones, and maybe a short story), Lolo’s niece, and Walt that looked like it was going to be a major part of this novel. And then it just…went away. I’m not talking about being unresolved, it was simply dropped with 150 pages to go.
Now that I stop and think for a minute, there was another subplot that didn’t get adequate resolution…maybe it’s setting the stage for something else, too?
I think Johnson’s too good to just drop stuff without a good reason (ditto for the editorial staff at Viking). I just can’t see the reasoning from here.
So, what did I think about Next to Last Stand?
“You do realize that being so conversant with wounds that you can estimate the amount of stitches needed to retain vital organs is not normal, right?”
I laughed. “What’s normal in this line of work anyway?”
“Good question.”
Abandoned storylines aside, I liked this so much. The world and characters we know and love have almost been absent—or at least not fully present—since 2016’s An Obvious Fact. But they’re all here, and it felt so good to be back. But even without that sense of relief, this was a fun book—had we got this book without the Mexico trip trilogy (for lack of a better name), I’d have enjoyed it as much. Clever mystery, great characters—both the guilty, the victims, and everyone else—with a conclusion that’s as entertaining as it is satisfying. I was in hog heaven.
Would this work as a jumping-on point to the series, or even to read as a stand-alone? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Johnson’s strong on that point, you can jump on at almost any point and feel at home. You technically could read this as a stand-alone, but it’d be like eating just one Lays Potato Chip, I bet you cant. I’m already counting down the days until Walt Longmire #17, and there are too many of them.
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