Craig Johnson brings Sheriff Walt Longmire back in THE BROTHERS MCKAY, the twenty-second installment in the bestselling Longmire Mystery series, the “beloved” and “truly binge-worthy favorites in the outdoor mystery genre” (CrimeReads). With over three million copies of Johnson’s page-turning mysteries sold globally, THE BROTHERS MCKAY is Walt Longmire at his very best: wry, weathered, and pushed to reckon with how personal justice can become in the wide-open West.
Easy-going Craig talks to Doris Booth at Authorlink® about his love of writing and making his continuing characters grow. He spends eight hours a day (most days) in the loft of the log cabin he and wife Judy built in the tiny town of Ucross, Wyoming (population 26). Craig shares how he first envisioned Walt as his main character, why he patterned the fictitious Absaroka County after real places and why he thinks the series of books and television have been such a long-running hit. The nearly-hour-long interview provides valuable lessons for novelists trying to write well enough to publish and earn a living. As we talk, it is as if we are visiting the real Longmire. One is as authentic and engaging as the other. For avid fans, Craig hints at what the future might (or might not) hold for Walt. Long live Walt Longmire. And Craig Johnson, too!
About the latest Longmire book:
When Pepper McKay’s body is discovered face-down in Crazy Woman Creek after a typical morning fishing trip, no one’s mourning. A tyrannical drunkard who made an enemy of nearly everyone, Pepper messed with people’s land, money, wives and daughters. But it seems Crazy Woman Creek got to him before any spurned man could get his revenge. At least, until a second pair of boot prints are found by the body. Sheriff Walt Longmire’s attention is on those who gathered for a family meeting that evening, McKay’s very different sons: a smooth-talking charmer, a cosmopolitan journalist, a reclusive monk, and a half-Native ranch hand who keeps the place running. Each had a motive. Each claims he’s innocent.
Walt Longmire and his undersheriff, Victoria Moretti, (And Dog) are on the case. Then things take a sharp turn: a second body surfaces, and a wildfire tears through the canyon, trapping Walt and forcing him into a fight for his life as both the killer and the elements close in. And if trying to find the murderer of a dictatorial, skirt-chasing drunk wasn’t difficult enough, Maxim Sidorov has filed for relocation, which means Walt is burdened with being his parole officer.
Inspired by Dostoyevsky—especially The Brothers Karamazov—THE BROTHERS MCKAY is similarly twisty, grappling with questions of inheritance—both monetary and moral—and the ways sins are passed down, reshaped, and reckoned with.
About the Author:
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.
