Review of Spirit of Steamboat by Craig Johnson
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Regardless of this volume beingness touted hither at GR every bit being book nine.i in the serial, it is really a stand alone entry into the Longmire cannon. The title of the book "Spirit of Steamboat" refers to a WWII bomber that is sitting in the Absaroka County airport being refurbished.
The story takes place
If y'all are familiar with Longmire either from the A & E boob tube series or any of the previous books then there is not much I can say to convince you of the loftier quality of writing this book contains.Regardless of this book beingness touted here at GR as beingness book 9.i in the series, it is actually a stand lonely entry into the Longmire cannon. The championship of the book "Spirit of Steamboat" refers to a WWII bomber that is sitting in the Absaroka County airdrome beingness refurbished.
The story takes place in 1988 during a huge blizzard. There has been a horrible accident on the icy roads on the day before Christmas with three people dead and a alone survivor, a small girl perhaps aged ten or eleven who is in such critical status that she will also die if she does not get medical help. In that location is no facility in Montana that can attend to this result.
Longmire solicits the help of his former boss the retired Lucian Connally, also an ex-military airplane pilot, to fly the injured girl to Children s Hospital in Denver.
And so the risk begins in this fast paced, thrill a infinitesimal excursion into the storm filled snowy skies.
I read this volume last nighttime in one sitting. A "I can't terminate reading this" kind of volume. Perhaps information technology will brand you seek out the T.V. bear witness, or watch information technology on Netflix or .. perhaps read one of Johnson's other books.
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There is a lot of history in this small book--the Doolittle raid on Japan in April of 1942, the bronco equus caballus on Wyoming license plates and the B25 bomber that flew on the Doolittle raid. I read this library book This a brusque, sweet novella, 146p. The book opens with Walt Longmire, Sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming, getting a visitor who wants to speak to the previous Sheriff. Walt agrees to take her to Lucian Connally, his predecessor. Then an inspiring Christmas story unfolds in a flashback.
There is a lot of history in this modest book--the Doolittle raid on Nippon in April of 1942, the bronco horse on Wyoming license plates and the B25 bomber that flew on the Doolittle raid. I read this library book in a day and a one-half and recommend it. My married woman also recommends information technology. ...more
Oh, hell, we got a one-legged pilot who hasn't flown one of these things in well-nigh a hundred years. A copilot that in flight-time reality has barely even sat in i. A hangar queen that's fix for the salvage yard, and a snowstorm that's going to try and accident us into the ground most Wichita ... What could go incorrect?
Oh, hell! I thought I already reviewed this one!
I usually remember most sheriff Walt Longmire during the wintertime holidays, equally I sadly wait for the large snow that no longer comes to my
Oh, hell, we got a ane-legged pilot who hasn't flown one of these things in about a hundred years. A copilot that in flying-time reality has barely fifty-fifty sabbatum in 1. A hangar queen that'south set for the salve yard, and a snowstorm that'due south going to attempt and blow us into the basis near Wichita ... What could get wrong?
Oh, hell! I thought I already reviewed this ane!
I usually remember virtually sheriff Walt Longmire during the winter holidays, as I sadly wait for the big snow that no longer comes to my hometown earlier January or February. Damn that global warming, and damn that Absaroka County in Wyoming, where they never seem to run out of the white stuff.
"Spirit of Steamboat" is one of the best necktie-in novellas that the author likes to publish around Christmas fourth dimension. Information technology's nearly the spirit of Christmas, helping others in need, and not about steamboats on the Mississippi River. The opening quote pretty much sums upwards the plot here, and the less I add to it, the better will readers enjoy the unique flight of an erstwhile bomber plane from World War II. Every bit usual with the ongoing Longmire serial, much of its charm and appeal lies in the interactions between the members of this tightly knit customs and in the abrupt wit of the narrator.
bonus note: you lot don't need to read any of the other books in society to enjoy this one.
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Sidled upwards and in between the major Walt Longmire novels, Johnson frequently publishes novellas and brusk stories featuring the steadfast hero Walt Longmire: sheriff of Wyoming's fictional Absaroka County. Spirit of Steamboat, numerically sequenced as #9.1 is the latest in this series of novellas.
Aside from the Dick Francis's novels I don't know of any other author writing in this genre who portrays a hero equally jump by rational thought, steadfast ethics, and likability as does Craig Jo
Book Review:Sidled up and in betwixt the major Walt Longmire novels, Johnson frequently publishes novellas and short stories featuring the steadfast hero Walt Longmire: sheriff of Wyoming's fictional Absaroka County. Spirit of Steamboat, numerically sequenced as #9.1 is the latest in this serial of novellas.
Aside from the Dick Francis'south novels I don't know of whatever other writer writing in this genre who portrays a hero as bound by rational thought, steadfast ideals, and likability equally does Craig Johnson.
This is the kind of adventure story that I'd imagine myself reading to listeners past a fireplace where every word inspires heroism, goodness, and a profound anxiety on the part of the listener (or reader) to take Walt survive the feel.
This is a story of a adult female who wishes to express gratitude and of how 1 accepts that gratitude when dished out, or not. This novella features the former sheriff of Absaroka Canton and Walt, the electric current sheriff. Information technology is a gripping tale where the reader hangs on every passage, following the deadly flight of Steamboat, an erstwhile and deemed a not-condom-to-fly B-52 airplane on a rescue mission through a horrifying snow blizzard, in effect risking a scattering of lives in an effort to salve one life.
Telling great stories is what Craig Johnson does best. Those who have read my reviews and taken me up on reading this series will no doubt agree: reading a Johnson novel, novella, or short story is a great reading feel second to none.
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Series Review
Craig Johnson
Craig Johnson has written nine novels in his Walt Longmire series. Formerly a police officer; he has also worked every bit a educator, cowboy and longshoreman. Awards include Tony Hillerman Award, Wyoming Historical Society Award, Wyoming Councl for the Arts Award, too as numerous starred awards. Johnson was also a board member of the Mystery Writers' of America.
Craig Johnson every bit an artist, every bit a human who paints with words ascribes to the essential characteristic of what makes art unlike from anything else: only it can portray the globe as the artist thinks it ought to be as opposed to how information technology is. "Now a days, it's really hard to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys..." he says in an interview. "But Walt's a pretty good guy...the kinda guy if my car slithered off the road on I-80 in a blizzard, he's the guy I'd want to help me out." Johnson admits to portraying Walt Longmire, the hero in this honor-winning series, as "The kinda guy my married woman says I want to exist in well-nigh 10 years."
Starting from his option of book title all the way to the last period at the end of the book Johnson'south prose fills the reader's soul with a longing for the good. And where else is one to detect it merely in the fictional county of Absaroka, Wyoming and it's Sheriff Walt Longmire. Every bit with the work of William Kent Krueger Johnson introduces readers to the Western concept of cowboys and indians. Growing upwards in the Netherlands, I read till belatedly in the night the wildly pop series Winnetou and One-time Shatterhand (not available in us). When playing outside 6000 miles away from American soil, it wasn't cops and robbers we played, it was cowboys and indians. It was this image of America I held in my heed as a 12 year old boy standing on the deck of the The statesS. Rotterdam as we sailed into New York Harbor and waited in the lines of Ellis Island to be granted admission to my boyhood dreams.
Unlike older western novels, however, Johnson brings this cultural diversity into the 20th century and without delving into multi-culturalism brings us to that mystical nether region between the two where native american and white man see each other half-way. Johnson's aim is at portraying a fictional world as it should be and this includes diversity. Henry, a native american is Walt's all-time friend. The indian community stands fix to aid the law, helps the white man bring justice regardless of race, color or creed. Walt Longmire, in a hallucinatory fit, dances with the Cheyenne spirits who guide him to rubber in the midst of a devastating blizzard even though the unconscious man slung over his shoulders is a perpatrator against a Native American adult female. Walt does non question his sanity afterwards. Craig Johnson'south world is ane we might all long for...and isn't that the purpose of art?
Likewise often I read book reviews where the reviewers seem to place verisimilitude above fiction. In my stance, if you want reality, if you want to read about the way things are, then view a documentary, read a biography, check out reality Television receiver. This is fiction, and if an writer changes reality to adapt his notion for the book, and so be it...
For some, the start in the serial moves along a scrap slowly...but to them I would say: give this author time to paint his world as he sees fit. Books that concentrate on rural settings often have the reward of highlighting the man condition in startling clarity. Distractions such as are establish in urban settings removed, nosotros run into expert and evil and compassion in a more profound way. Wyoming'due south Absaroka County gives us this magnifying glass. I constitute the plot intriguing and the catastrophe second-to-none. Truly, the titles are well chosen in these novels.
There's a huge fan base for Johnson's work out at that place. A fan base that is after values, the practiced kind. I'thousand reminded of my daughter's fascination with Taylor Swift, whose millions of fans adulate her for precisely the aforementioned reason: her vision of 'the good'. There is a Renaissance occurring in a existent earth that at all-time can be portrayed as lost in the grey fog of compromised values; a Renaissance that has defenseless the attention of not but our youth, only all ages. And they are telling us what they want.
There'south a reason A&E'due south Longmire series has been canonical for Flavour #2. The first flavour sported A&Eastward's #1 original-serial premier of all time with four.1 million total viewers. I programme to read this entire series and after that, I plan to view the A&Due east series (hopefully on Netflix where it is not yet available for down-streaming). Johnson, remarking on the television series agrees that he is 100% on lath every bit the televised version is keeping very close to the books.
Unless there is a drastic difference in subsequent Longmire novels, this review will be the same for all the Walt Longmire books.
Enjoy!
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This mad twosome seems to go out of its way to test the edges of possibility. In this story, they are doing information technology for all the right reasons, and at a time when mos
Johnson has gifted us a curt, white-knuckled Christmas story that is likely to become a archetype. We all know Sheriff Longmire and how he took over the primary law enforcement job in Absaroka County from old Lucian Connally. This story brings them dorsum working together again on a cold and stormy nighttime--Christmas Eve in Montana back in 1988.This mad twosome seems to become out of its manner to examination the edges of possibility. In this story, they are doing it for all the right reasons, and at a time when nigh folks want to exist cuddling at abode with their families. Cardinal to the action is an old copy of A Christmas Carol which you might want to glance at before or afterwards this slim 100-page novella, only to put you in the mood. This story is just long enough to read after you have laid out gifts "from Santa" nether the tree and earlier heading up to bed.
Bourbon is Connally's drink of choice…y'all may want to salute him with a glass later reading this trivial act of crazy heroism. It does make a good story, a overnice lilliputian gift for Santa to savour, just as though he/she were sitting effectually with his/her 'buds' telling alpine tales tardily into the night…
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A perfect fashion to cap off my holiday reading!
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"What the fuck, man?"
"I know, right. I must be one Lucky Bastard."
"Now you're referencing a review of one author within the review of another author. Just how big of a pimp, are you?"
"I have a fedora, white bowling shoes with black tips, a cane with a aureate handle, a purple vest, and a neon light-green trench coat."
"Are you lot showing up at the Playboy mansion later with an armful of strippers?"
"No fashion, my married woman would coffin my body in the backyard next to th
"Dude, this is my 2d complimentary Craig Johnson volume.""What the fuck, man?"
"I know, right. I must be one Lucky Bounder."
"Now you're referencing a review of one writer within the review of another writer. Just how big of a pimp, are you?"
"I have a fedora, white bowling shoes with blackness tips, a cane with a golden handle, a majestic vest, and a neon light-green trench coat."
"Are you showing up at the Playboy mansion subsequently with an armful of strippers?"
"No way, my wife would bury my trunk in the lawn next to the scorpions and the lizards with the turquoise tails. And she might fifty-fifty toss a black widow spider into the plastic bag along with me to keep me visitor."
"That'due south the matter. I thought your wife was going with you--"
"She's not big on pimped out parties caked with artificial breasts, string bikinis, and copious amounts of alcohol."
"You lost me at string bikinis. What were we talking about again?"
"Get your caput out of the gutter. This is a Christmas novel for crying out loud."
"It's non actually a novel. It's a novella."
"Oh, are you some kind of expert now?"
"I live inside your head. I must have some vague notion of what's going on in the publishing industry, otherwise yous and I should have parted means more than 10 years ago." Brief suspension. "But back to the task at hand…what did yous really think of SPIRIT OF STEAMBOAT?"
"Information technology was entertaining…"
"There's a but coming on, isn't there? And we're non talking about the ones at the Playboy mansion."
"I saw the road signs, and followed the detour, but it didn't take me to the Promised Land. Wyoming has go a bit of a 2nd home for me, with the lush scenery and painted landscapes, but I spent most of this tale in an airplane that has seen ameliorate days. And while I appreciated the additional details about Lucian, he'due south ane crusty old curmudgeon, even in his younger days." I tilt my caput and stare at ceiling tiles. "And I estimate I didn't realize how much I missed a practiced Walt Longmire mystery."
"You lot sure weren't missing those mysteries too much when you downed all those erotica novels."
My back stiffens. "True, but Craig Johnson and mysteries go together about as well as PB&J. While Julie Luehrman more than held her ain in this tale, what I actually wanted was some Vic Moretti with a rima oris that matches her cup size and the sage communication of Henry Standing Carry."
"Aside from the breast reference, you really are a sentimental bastard."
"Aye, I guess I am."
I received this book for gratis through NetGalley.
Cross-posted at Robert's Reads
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I honey this series! It is definitely one of my favorites. I love the setting, the characters, the lore and culture that Johnson weaves into his plots -- I love it all. I loved it so much I even watched the television series (several times in fact) and didn't complain when they deviated from Johnson's characters and plots. It was like getting an extra dose of Longmire on top of the books. This is a series where I have the physical books on my keeper shelf all lined upward in a row...matching editions. And I besides listen to the audio books through my local library considering George Guidall brings the stories and characters to life.
This story has a lot of graphic symbol development moments, some bizarre twists and turns, and just apparently weirdness. Normally, I might have raised an countenance and idea to myself that there is no way that people would actually behave this way or do these things. But.....after 2020.....and the things I have seen and witnessed people doing, saying and believing.....I just embraced the weirdness and went with it. Smashing story every bit usual!
Full stars from me -- I dear the Longmire series!
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Perfect. Just perfect. Now I need to sleep, I accept to get up in a few hours, merely couldn't lay down the book. Read information technology.
„. . . no space of regret tin make amends for i life'southward opportunity misused. . . ."Perfect. Just perfect. Now I demand to sleep, I accept to get upwards in a few hours, merely couldn't lay downward the book. Read it.
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This story, a flashback to when Walt had simply go sheriff, was unique in that there was no mystery to solve, and it showed the older-generation of characters -- Walt, Lucian Connally, Doctor Bloomfield -- in a very different scenario than usual, under a great deal of stress.
While the suspe
This white-knuckle, edge-of-your-seat novella well-nigh an emergency flying through a blizzard from Absaroka to Denver puts the writer's previous vacation short stories in Christmas in Absaroka Canton to shame.This story, a flashback to when Walt had just become sheriff, was unique in that there was no mystery to solve, and it showed the older-generation of characters -- Walt, Lucian Connally, Doctor Bloomfield -- in a very different scenario than usual, under a groovy deal of stress.
While the suspense was hollow, every bit we know Walt and company must have survived the harrowing flight, which (fifty-fifty if y'all haven't read the series) the novella's framing device gives away, I wasn't put off by that because I read this equally Christmas miracle tale, and enjoyed seeing the displayed bravery as a form of heroic, activeness-packed character groundwork for these older gents in the serial. In that respect, I besides liked the mentions of A Christmas Ballad throughout the novella.
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It's a good Christmas story and offers a farther glimpse into the background of one of my favorite characte
Steamboat is an sometime B-25 Mitchell bomber converted for send, with the same proper noun equally a legendary Wyoming rodeo bronc. And it's the merely means to get a badly burned daughter to the children'southward hospital in Denver during a record snowstorm. As luck (or fate) would have it, the ane pilot who tin can fly the old aeroplane is retired sheriff and WWII vet, Lucien Connally--if Walt can sober him upwards, that is.Information technology'due south a good Christmas story and offers a further glimpse into the groundwork of one of my favorite characters in the series.
3.5 stars.
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Hither's a fun fact. The bucking bronco that is depicted on the Wyoming license plate is in award of a legendary bucking bronco named Steamboat! Also, WWII buffs and airplane aficionados will savor reading about this dange
A Longmire novella depicting a dangerous B-25 flight during a hellacious blizzard in 1988. A young girl fights for her life after a car accident. Lucien Connolly, Walt Longmire's one-time dominate pilots a WWII airplane from Durant, Wy to Denver, CO in a blizzard to save the girl's life.Hither'due south a fun fact. The bucking bronco that is depicted on the Wyoming license plate is in honour of a legendary bucking bronco named Steamboat! As well, WWII buffs and airplane aficionados will relish reading well-nigh this unsafe flight in the B-25 named Steamboat!
...more I don't know what the remainder of y'all see hither. The plot was predictable, the dialog repetitive, and the aviation laughably ridiculous. Glad it was brusk.
I've never read any of Craig Johnson's work earlier. Picked this one off of the library shelf considering it was short and the comprehend appealed to the aviation geek in me.I don't know what the balance of you come across here. The plot was anticipated, the dialog repetitive, and the aviation laughably ridiculous. Glad it was short.
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Note that at that place is no murder or mystery hither. Just Walt overcoming insane odds. The rest of his crew does not participate. It is set as a quasi-prequel to the series, most of it told as a wink-back before book #1.
A near-perfect curt-story. If yous like Walt, you'll enjoy this book.
This is a harrowing story where Walt makes it possible to salve a young girl from certain decease, purely by force of graphic symbol. Lucien reluctantly helps. It is intense and filled with tension from offset to end.Note that there is no murder or mystery hither. Only Walt overcoming insane odds. The rest of his crew does not participate. It is fix equally a quasi-prequel to the series, nearly of it told equally a flash-back before book #1.
A most-perfect curt-story. If you like Walt, you'll bask this book.
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My Take
I liked the start of this one with its prese
My Accept
I liked the start of this one with its nowadays day setting before Walt heads dorsum into memory. It's a moaning Walt, moaning in his caput near how lonely this Christmas volition be: no Cady as she's expecting Walt'southward first grandchild in January, Vic has gone to Belize with her mom, and Henry has a new ladyfriend. Just it's a loneliness broken by an old memory in the form of a visitor. One who takes Walt and Lucian dorsum in fourth dimension to a truly fearsome Christmas.
It'south that inkling, Steamboat, when Walt realizes who their visitor is and the memory sends him back in fourth dimension, remembering that fearsome Christmas Eve flying to save a piffling girl'southward life.
Information technology'south a trip back into history on many levels equally Johnson provides back history on Lucian'south life without making it an info dump, the Haylift story with those personal touches and heavy loads LOL, lots of foreshadowing--he did make me cry with that line: "Good thing we've got a long route ahead of us, huh?" A bit more back history gives u.s.a. the background on the bucking bronco on Wyoming's license plate with its parallel application betwixt the horse and today's company. I also enjoyed the subtle hints of the Indian spirits who would be such a help to Walt in the years to come.
It's an exciting ride, LOL, how could it non exist when Lucian Connally is at the controls of an aboriginal bomber with hydraulic issues and leaks of all sorts while Doc Bloomfield struggles to salvage a immature girl'south life western manner every bit he's flung about the plane.
Yup, fancy flying with a whole lotta goosing and an even trickier landing that reflects back on the bucking bronco of the Mitchell'south namesake.
The Story
Information technology's a mysterious visitor on Christmas Eve that sends Walt downwards memory lane to a much earlier Christmas when Martha was still alive, just before the bad news hits.
Simply a young girl survived the automobile crash, barely. If she doesn't get to a burn unit down in Denver, she'll die. And there's a massive cold front from Canada coming in.
The Characters
Walt Longmire has been sheriff of Absaroka Canton for a chip over a month at present, the issue of an election Lucian did his best to lose. Martha is his worried wife; Cady is their 9-year-old daughter.
Lucian Connally was the poker-playing, one-legged sheriff earlier Walt and a Doolittle Raider during Earth War 2. He'south now living at the Durant Home for Assisted Living.
Dr. Isaac Bloomfield goes along for the ride. Julie Luehrman teaches function-time—at Cady'south school and to pilots—and she's a mechanic and pilot who'll take that terrifying co-pilot'due south seat. Rick Koehmstedt is the airport managing director. The Ferg is Walt's deputy.
Mrs. Oda is the grandmother of Amaterasu, the young fire victim.
Electric current day...
Ruby is the dispatcher for the sheriff's section. Mary Jo Johnson works at the Durant Home for Assisted Living. Henry owns the Red Pony Bar and is Walt'due south best friend. Fifty-fifty if he is spending most of his fourth dimension with a new lady. Dog is, well, a dog who goes everywhere with Walt.
The Comprehend
The cover is a woodcut-effect of a B-25 bomber named Steamboat with the mustang and rider silhouette from the Wyoming license plates painted on her side, as she struggles through the snowy turquoise sky on her errand of mercy. It's only the Spirit of Steamboat that gets them through.
On Christmas Eve, Sheriff Walt Longmire is in his role when a young woman walks in. Although she seems to know Walt, he doesn't recognize her. She also wants to see a picture of Lucian Connally, the former sheriff. Walt takes her to see Lucian in an every bit
I've been looking back over the books I read in 2013, and, while at that place were a number of adept ones, at that place weren't a large number of outstanding ones. Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire novella, Spirit of Steamboat, falls into the outstanding category.On Christmas Eve, Sheriff Walt Longmire is in his office when a young woman walks in. Although she seems to know Walt, he doesn't recognize her. She too wants to see a picture of Lucian Connally, the former sheriff. Walt takes her to encounter Lucian in an assisted living facility. He's drunk, but enlightened plenty to say he doesn't know her either. When she whispers the discussion, "Steamboat", the story takes an unusual turn to a Christmas past.
On Christmas Eve 1988, a car crashed, defenseless on fire, leaving three people dead and 1 survivor. Just, the survivor wasn't going to get in unless Sheriff Longmire could find a way to get her to Denver in the heart of a blizzard. Sheriff Longmire, in his commencement term as sheriff, left his wife and daughter behind on Christmas Eve, and teamed up with defeated sheriff Lucian Connally to fight their way through a storm to endeavour to salvage a life.
At that place's a lilliputian more on the book jacket, but I'm not going to spoil an outstanding story. In simply 146 pages, Johnson manages to pay homage to the past, and bring dorsum the youth and life of a few of his characters. This is a story of courage and character. In the acknowledgements, he says this is an odd fiddling book. "It'southward not a mystery per se, but rather an hazard/thriller with mysterious elements; sometimes it's not so much about the suspense of killing characters off in a book, but rather, of trying to keep them alive." This "odd little book", Spirit of Steamboat, manages to bring characters to life and keep the reader turning pages. It's amazing that Craig Johnson can pack and so much history, riveting story, atmosphere and gamble into one novella. Merely, then, he's a master of his arts and crafts with a gift of storytelling.
This holiday flavour, pick upwardly Craig Johnson'southward latest Walt Longmire story, Spirit of Steamboat, as a souvenir to yourself or the Longmire lover in the family unit.
Craig Johnson's website is www.craigallenjohnson.com
Spirit of Steamboat by Craig Johnson. Viking. 2013. ISBN 9780670015788 (hardcover), 146p
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When I starting time read the teaser of Spirit of Steamboat: A Walt Longmire Story, I causeless it had a Dickens experience and a supernatural plot. It said, "…when he'due south interrupted by the ghost of Christmas past." This, of course, is figurative, and while I was off balance by the description, the story is fast-paced and amazing.
Walt Longmire is a sheriff in Wyoming. It's Christmas Eve and Walt is spending information technology in his office. Tucked in h
Review to post on my blog: x/17/2013http://thewritelife2.wordpress.com/20...
When I first read the teaser of Spirit of Steamboat: A Walt Longmire Story, I causeless it had a Dickens feel and a supernatural plot. It said, "…when he's interrupted by the ghost of Christmas past." This, of form, is figurative, and while I was off residuum past the description, the story is fast-paced and amazing.
Walt Longmire is a sheriff in Wyoming. It's Christmas Eve and Walt is spending information technology in his office. Tucked in his artillery is Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol. A young Japanese adult female enters his office, and she has a scar on her forehead that he describes, "…what looked similar a hairline crack in the porcelain of her forehead, nigh equally if she'd been fabricated of china and at 1 point dropped." The scar has a story; hence, the "ghost of Christmas past."
The woman is non a ghost in the supernatural sense. She is a grown up version of the little girl from years ago who most died on an emergency flight on a aeroplane from World State of war II named, Steamboat. After the start affiliate or so, we enter the story of long ago. This is billed as a Christmas story, but Christmas has very little to do with it, except for the volume Walt continues to refer to throughout the story.
Spirit of Steamboat has a cowboy mental attitude and the writing is fantastic. Craig Johnson easily writes from Walt's point of view, differing his voice from the other characters in the novel. The novel is more similar a novella. It took me only one evening to read. Craig writes that the original story of Steamboat was meant to be a short story, just it grew to eighty pages, surpassing the limits of a short story. This novel is truly a peachy read with excellent writing and wonderful descriptions. I gave this novel five stars.
*Volume given past publisher to review.
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This is non a mystery in any sense, but rather an activity-packed visitation of Christmas Eve in 1988, when older members of Craig Johnson'due south cast of characters (including Lucia
This novella in the Longmire series finds its thematic center in a quote from Walt Longmire's almanac Christmastime rereading of Dickens's A Christmas Carol: "...no infinite of regret can make amends for one life's opportunity misused...." Like Dickens, Johnson offers a morality tale that is deceptively simple and deeply humane.This is not a mystery in whatever sense, simply rather an action-packed visitation of Christmas Eve in 1988, when older members of Craig Johnson's bandage of characters (including Lucian Connelly and Md Bloomfield, as well as newly-elected Sheriff Longmire himself) joined forces during a severe winter storm to effort to save the life of badly burned little girl, the sole survivor of a terrible car blow. Even with the facts that 1) I'1000 non one for Christmas stories on the whole and 2) the reader knows exactly where the story is headed at all times, this was something of a white-knuckle read thanks to the breakneck pacing and compelling descriptions.
Readers familiar with the Longmire serial volition detect some touching dramatic ironies hither, as well, which I won't spoil past describing.
Craig Johnson continues to write tales that are steeped in a corking awareness of history, literature, and ethical thought, and as long every bit he writes them, I'll be reading them.
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Framed by Walt's conclusion to read his father's vintage copy of A Christmas Ballad on a placidity Christmas Eve in his office, the story centers
If yous're a Longmire viewer, a fan of Craig Johnson'southward Walt Longmire mystery series, or but fascinated by the mod Westward, this is a Christmas novella y'all probably won't want to miss. Though it's not a mystery -- more of a thriller with links to Dickens -- it's a wittily written page-turner with a touch of seasonal flavor, & only enough non-cloying spirit.Framed by Walt's decision to read his father's vintage copy of A Christmas Carol on a tranquility Christmas Eve in his function, the story centers on a 1988 Christmas Eve rescue flight. In terrible northern Wyoming weather. And using a vintage B-25, piloted by the one man Walt knows can fly information technology: his aging predecessor, Lucian Connolly. WW II history, aviation details galore, and the story of a notable Wyoming bucking horse (withal commemorated on the land's license plates) combine to brand this a remarkable holiday read.
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Even so, where I'd expected another laff-packed mystery, what I got instead was a white-knuckle ride of an adventure yarn. The sense of humour's at that place, just it's not what I'll call up in a week's time.
The book's plot is nothing especially original. It's Christmas Eve 1988 an
A couple of months ago I encountered Craig Johnson's Longmire series in the course of Junkyard Dogs , and was much taken by what I read -- enough, anyway, to resolve to read more in the serial. The next that came to hand was this one.However, where I'd expected some other laff-packed mystery, what I got instead was a white-knuckle ride of an adventure yarn. The sense of humor'south there, but it'southward non what I'll remember in a week's time.
The book'due south plot is nothing especially original. It'due south Christmas Eve 1988 and a kid who'due south just lost her parents to an accident and herself needs urgent medical attention arrives in the Wyoming home turf of Walt Longmire, lately elected Sheriff of Absaroka County. The nearest hospital that can requite the girl the emergency care she needs for her burns and other injuries is in Denver, Colorado, only in that location'south a winter storm raging all across the intervening area and the roads are closed. The just hazard to save her life seems to be to try to send her by air through the blizzard and the winds and the darkness. Trouble is, the only bachelor aircraft is a dilapidated Globe War 2 bomber, Steamboat, named for the horse that gave rise to Wyoming's bucking bronco emblem (at least in one form of the legend).
The professionals balk at the prospect of the flight, so Walt, his ex-bomber-pilot predecessor as sheriff, Lucian, an underqualified copilot called Julie and the town's elderly doc, a concentration military camp survivor, volunteer to get the old rustbucket into the air and send the kid and her grandmother through several hundred miles of hostile air. Their chances, they reckon, are slim, but they can't simply watch the child die.
And and so, of course, things beginning to get wrong . . .
As hinted, I've read variants of the plot lots of times earlier, as I'm sure yous have as well. Information technology's given a poignant frame story, set in the nowadays day, but that too seems moderately familiar. Where this brusque novel actually scores, though, is in its incidents and its telling. I institute myself right in that location alongside Walt as he and his companions and Steamboat herself battled the elements and the probabilities. The scene in which Walt and Medico Isaac perform chest surgery with juryrigged equipment while the plane'southward existence jolted all around the sky will likely live with me a long while, as even more and so volition the feel of Walt trying to get the faulty flop bay doors to close while thirteen,000 feet to a higher place an invisible ground.
According to Johnson's foreword, he went to some lengths to become the facts almost both Steamboat the airplane and Steamboat the horse right, and that adds an extra dimension of interest to the volume. But let'southward be straight: What this is, outset and foremost, is a proficient, old-fashioned border-of-the-seater, one of the all-time I've read in a long while.
Believe it or not, it was just later on I'd started reading that I noticed the Santa lid on the encompass and the fact that Walt was reading A Christmas Ballad and realized I'd quite serendipitously pulled a seasonally appropriate book from the shelf.
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Craig Johnson an American novelist, short story writer, and playwright. . He lives in Ucross, near Sheridan, Wyoming, population 25.
Johnson has written twelve novels featuring Sheriff Walt Longmire: The Cold Dish, Decease Without Company, Kindness Goes Unpunished, Another Man'southward Moccasins, Junkyard Dogs, The Dark
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.Craig Johnson an American novelist, curt story writer, and playwright. . He lives in Ucross, most Sheridan, Wyoming, population 25.
Johnson has written twelve novels featuring Sheriff Walt Longmire: The Cold Dish, Death Without Visitor, Kindness Goes Unpunished, Another Human's Moccasins, Junkyard Dogs, The Night Horse (which received starred reviews from Kirkus, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal, and was named ane of Publisher's Weekly's best books of the year in 2009), Hell Is Empty, As The Crow Flies and A Snake's Tooth. The Common cold Dish and The Nighttime Horse were both Dilys Laurels finalists, and Death Without Company was named the Wyoming Historical Association'due south Book of the Year. Some other Human'south Moccasins received the Western Writers of America Spur Award for best novel of 2008 as well every bit the Mountains and Plains award for fiction book of the year.
Former law officer; has also worked as an educator, cowboy, and longshoreman.
AWARDS: Tony Hillerman Award for "Old Indian Trick"; fiction volume of the yr, Wyoming Historical Society, for Death Without Company, Wyoming Council for the Arts Honour.
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