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Book Summary and Reviews of The Dark Horse by Craig Johnson

The Dark Horse by Craig Johnson

The Dark Horse

A Walt Longmire Mystery

by Craig Johnson

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  • Published:
  • May 2009, 336 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Interweaving classic noir sensibilities and humor with contemporary themes of social justice, Craig Johnson's popular Walt Longmire mysteries transport readers to the sparse and rugged landscape of Wyoming. In The Dark Horse, the sheriff investigates when his instincts tell him something isn’t right about a prisoner accused of killing her husband.

Wade Barsad, a man with a dubious past, locked his wife's horses in their barn and burned the animals alive. In return, Mary shot Wade in the head six times—or so the story goes. Walt doesn't believe Mary’s confession, and he's determined to dig deeper. Posing as an insurance claims investigator, Walt soon discovers other people who might have wanted Wade dead, including a beautiful Guatemalan bartender and a rancher with a taste for liquor, but not for honesty.

The Dark Horse is sure to build on the success of Another Man's Moccasins as Sheriff Longmire unpins his star and ventures into a town without pity to save a woman without hope.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. [A] superb fifth contemporary mystery ... Series fans will delight in seeing Walt return to his cowboy roots." - Publishers Weekly

"Starred Review. Walt's fifth ... is stunningly descriptive and compulsively readable." - Kirkus Reviews

"... Johnson's deft, twisty storytelling immediately grips the reader. His latest has a heart as big as a Wyoming sky." - Library Journal

This information about The Dark Horse was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Craig Johnson Author Biography

Photo: Elisabeth Roger

Craig Johnson is the New York Times bestselling author of the Longmire mysteries, the basis for the hit Netflix original series Longmire. He is the recipient of the Western Writers of America Spur Award for fiction, the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award for fiction, the Nouvel Observateur Prix du Roman Noir, and the Prix SNCF du Polar. His novella Spirit of Steamboat was the first One Book Wyoming selection. He lives in Ucross, Wyoming, population 26.

Link to Craig Johnson's Website

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