From College Football Star to Sheriff’s Sleuth: Walt Longmire and ‘First Frost’

Walt Longmire, a former football star at Southern Cal, enlisted in the Marines in 1964. Fast forward to the present day, Longmire and his deputy are exploring his basement when they come across a hundred-pound Bob Simmons-model surfboard, a relic from his youth. Despite his size, Longmire reminisces about his surfing days, and his deputy questions him about the heavily dented front of the board, prompting him to share a long and intriguing tale that becomes the center of Craig Johnson’s 20th crime novel, “First Frost,” featuring Longmire as the sheriff of fictional Absaroka County, Wyoming.

As Longmire and his deputy dig deeper into the mysteries of Absaroka County, they encounter a town as unwelcoming as its name. Residents warn them to leave as soon as possible, with some messages sounding like threats. However, Longmire becomes determined to get to the bottom of the secrets lurking in the town. Meanwhile, Longmire faces scrutiny for a fatal shooting from a previous novel, “The Longmire Defense,” and finds himself the target of a wealthy and politically powerful family seeking vengeance.

Johnson skillfully weaves between two time periods in the novel while maintaining a brisk pace in both storylines. The older tale is filled with suspense involving murderous drug smugglers, a tyrannical former judge controlling Bone Valley