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"Hell is empty and all the devils are here." - The Tempest On the job for more than thirty years, Absaroka County sheriff Walt Longmire faces one of the most challenging cases of his career when adopted Crow Raynaud Shade confesses to murdering a young boy ten years earlier and burying him in the Bighorn Mountains. Longmire is assigned to transport Shade, several other convicts and some federal marshals to the area where Shade buried Owen White Buffalo. During a massive ice storm, Shade and his accomplices are able to escape, along with the marshals who they are using as hostages. Thus begins a perilous journey into one of Wyoming’s most dangerous terrains. Walt is no spring chicken; yet he is able to persevere and track the group along with the help of Owen’s enigmatic uncle, Virgil White Buffalo, who is unaware of Owen’s fate. Virgil is a mystical figure who provides Walt with direction that is often confounding but on target. Along the way, various members of the party that they are tracking are found dead. Shade is a true sociopath who is playing some kind of game that only his twisted mind can understand. Johnson does a wonderful job of documenting Walt’s perilous quest. The setting is impeccably rendered, with the suspense building as Walt faces the extremely harsh elements with dwindling resources. As the book draws to a conclusion, it seems that Walt’s time is up. As always, the characterization is fascinating, especially of the character of Virgil. The only exception, and an issue in the book for me, is that there was no in-depth development of the villain Raynaud Shade. We only see him from a distance and never really get at the heart of who he is and what he is about. My other difficulty with the book had to do with a series of dreams that are interspersed throughout the narrative. I found them hard to follow and too far apart to make a cohesive thread. Overall, HELL IS EMPTY is an engrossing and emotionally involving read. I was completely drawn in as Walt faced the forces of nature and his own mortality. Hopefully, more readers will learn about this excellent series if the TV pilot, “Longmire” is successful on A&E. § Formerly a training development manager for a large company, Maddy is now retired and continues to enable the addiction of crime fiction fans as owner of the online discussion group, 4 Mystery Addicts(4MA), while avidly reading in every possible free moment herself.
Reviewed by Maddy Van Hertbruggen, August 2011
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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