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katenetz's review against another edition
4.0
I was surprised that a whole book could be one long chase sequence, but not that it would keep my engrossed as wholly as it did. Phew!
kamzilla's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
karna's review against another edition
3.0
I wasn't sure at first if I will like this 7th book about Walt Longmire, because of the absence of the recurring characters.
We do see Vic,Sancho and Henry, but not a lot, and I really missed them while I was reading Hell is empty (the title is great).
Nevertheless, I really like this book, especially when Walt meets Virgil or his ghost.I have truly missed him.
The wisdom of Virgil was fasicinating to read.
I also liked very much the discussions Walt has with the connvicts.
The moment when Walt is inside a great fire is a great moment.
A very good Walt Longmire's book, but not my favorite's one.
We do see Vic,Sancho and Henry, but not a lot, and I really missed them while I was reading Hell is empty (the title is great).
Nevertheless, I really like this book, especially when Walt meets Virgil or his ghost.I have truly missed him.
The wisdom of Virgil was fasicinating to read.
I also liked very much the discussions Walt has with the connvicts.
The moment when Walt is inside a great fire is a great moment.
A very good Walt Longmire's book, but not my favorite's one.
iamkallia's review
4.0
"What is it with you white people and morals? Maybe it's just a story about what happened." He paused for a moment. "If an Indian points at a tree, you white people are always thinking, What does that mean? What does the tree stand for? What's the lesson in this for me? Maybe it's just a tree."
Another brilliant outing by [a:Craig Johnson|63607|Craig Johnson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1349965600p2/63607.jpg].
I think one of my favorite aspects of long running mystery series, and what sets an amazing one apart from the good ones, is the ability to weave a world. Perhaps it's not an entire universe, with unique flora and fauna, and detailed maps; but the ability to show how a character from a previous novel continues to affect the characters, and how their past interactions can reflect on present interactions.
Craig Johnson is a master of this. From [b:The Cold Dish|109901|The Cold Dish (Walt Longmire, #1)|Craig Johnson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1398028367l/109901._SY75_.jpg|105919] all the way to Hell Is Empty, people that Walt has met and befriended continue to pop up. It really helps make him feel like a good sheriff - not just an okay sheriff, but one who genuinely cares about his community. It also helps make it seem like a small county.
While perhaps not the strongest mystery - there's no question as to whodunit - it's still a strong narrative. I think Walt is at his peak when it's just him against the elements, fighting against both mother nature and human nature. And this book really nails that down - the majority of the book is spent with Walt and his own thoughts.
All in all, I can't recommend these books enough. If you like a good mystery, Longmire should be required reading.
Another brilliant outing by [a:Craig Johnson|63607|Craig Johnson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1349965600p2/63607.jpg].
I think one of my favorite aspects of long running mystery series, and what sets an amazing one apart from the good ones, is the ability to weave a world. Perhaps it's not an entire universe, with unique flora and fauna, and detailed maps; but the ability to show how a character from a previous novel continues to affect the characters, and how their past interactions can reflect on present interactions.
Craig Johnson is a master of this. From [b:The Cold Dish|109901|The Cold Dish (Walt Longmire, #1)|Craig Johnson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1398028367l/109901._SY75_.jpg|105919] all the way to Hell Is Empty, people that Walt has met and befriended continue to pop up. It really helps make him feel like a good sheriff - not just an okay sheriff, but one who genuinely cares about his community. It also helps make it seem like a small county.
While perhaps not the strongest mystery - there's no question as to whodunit - it's still a strong narrative. I think Walt is at his peak when it's just him against the elements, fighting against both mother nature and human nature. And this book really nails that down - the majority of the book is spent with Walt and his own thoughts.
All in all, I can't recommend these books enough. If you like a good mystery, Longmire should be required reading.
bravokidroxy's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Child death, Colonisation, Death, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Racism, Animal death, Blood, Stalking, Violence, Body horror, Grief, and Kidnapping
Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Ableism, and Medical content
Lots of ice and winter weather injury and physical traumahollyfromthebigsky's review against another edition
2.0
Definitely my least favorite of the Longmire stories thus far, there was a lot going on but I missed the plot/detective story. Some loved this re-thinking of the Inferno and Walt's narrative, but I prefer the mysteries and missed the other characters in this book. Oh well.
bondtsou1's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
plantbirdwoman's review against another edition
3.0
Hidden somewhere in Walt Longmire's closet must be one of those special suits that cartoon superheroes wear. A red, white, and blue cape with matching tights perhaps. He certainly gives every indication of being one of the Indestructibles in this entry of Craig Johnson's series about the sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming. He endures a blizzard with gale-force winds and temperatures of forty degrees below zero, a forest fire that traps him in a lake and forces him to go underwater to survive, days with little food and less sleep, confronting a mountain lion, being shot, nearly falling off a mountain - the list goes on and on. But, in the end, he's left alive, sitting on his front porch enjoying pleasant spring weather with his friend Henry Standing Bear, his deputy/lover Vic Moretti, and his daughter Cady.
We only get that one glimpse of pleasant weather. It seems that all of these Walt Longmire stories take place in winter when a blizzard is blowing through the Wyoming mountains. And winter seems to last for much of the year. The action in Hell is Empty takes place in May but winter is still most definitely on the scene.
The action opens with Walt and his deputy Santiago Saizarbitoria (aka Sancho) helping to transport three convicts, murderers all, on their way to their assigned prisons. Transporting convicts across rugged country in a van...hmm, I wonder what could go wrong.
A full force of law enforcement is involved, including FBI and other local sheriffs and prison guards, but, soon enough, what we expected happens and the criminals escape, killing or wounding several of the lawmen in the process. Walt and Sancho were not present at this time, but they soon realize that something is wrong and find the scene of carnage and the convicts gone, taking hostages with them.
One of the convicts is a particularly bad character, a sociopath whom Walt has lately learned had, ten years earlier, killed a young man named Owen White Buffalo. Walt has history with the White Buffalo family, particularly Virgil White Buffalo, who we met in a previous book and who we eventually learn was Owen's grandfather. Part of the reason for the convicts being taken through that part of Wyoming was that the killer had promised to show them where he had buried the victim.
With a storm on the way and communication with the outside world patchy at best, Walt leaves Sancho in charge of the wounded and heads out on his own to track the sociopath. Sancho fills a backpack of supplies for Walt and includes the book he was currently reading, one that was on a list recommended to him by his co-workers. It is Dante's Inferno. Let's see, wasn't Virgil the guide through the different levels of that Hell? I wonder if there could be a connection...
I won't really bore you with the plot. In fact, there isn't much of one except that Walt pushes on through fire and ice, and refuses to give up when any sensible human being would have stopped and waited for the back-up which was on the way. He chases his prey up Cloud Peak, where he's been before in this series. It might as well be named Mystic Mountain, because every time he goes up it, he seems to have a mystical experience involving the spirits of long-dead Indians. Spirits which he refuses to acknowledge or discuss once he gets off the mountain.
This novel was written as a thriller and had very little of the sardonic humor that usually makes the series such a pleasure to read. Moreover, there was little or no interaction with the supporting characters that are so much a part of these stories. It was just all Walt, Superhero, all the way through. It wasn't bad. The connection between Dante's Inferno and that Virgil and Walt's Inferno and Virgil White Buffalo may have been laid on a bit thick, but I found it interesting. The sections featuring Walt's conversations with Virgil White Buffalo were the most enjoyable parts for me. On the whole, though, this was not one of my favorite Longmire stories.
We only get that one glimpse of pleasant weather. It seems that all of these Walt Longmire stories take place in winter when a blizzard is blowing through the Wyoming mountains. And winter seems to last for much of the year. The action in Hell is Empty takes place in May but winter is still most definitely on the scene.
The action opens with Walt and his deputy Santiago Saizarbitoria (aka Sancho) helping to transport three convicts, murderers all, on their way to their assigned prisons. Transporting convicts across rugged country in a van...hmm, I wonder what could go wrong.
A full force of law enforcement is involved, including FBI and other local sheriffs and prison guards, but, soon enough, what we expected happens and the criminals escape, killing or wounding several of the lawmen in the process. Walt and Sancho were not present at this time, but they soon realize that something is wrong and find the scene of carnage and the convicts gone, taking hostages with them.
One of the convicts is a particularly bad character, a sociopath whom Walt has lately learned had, ten years earlier, killed a young man named Owen White Buffalo. Walt has history with the White Buffalo family, particularly Virgil White Buffalo, who we met in a previous book and who we eventually learn was Owen's grandfather. Part of the reason for the convicts being taken through that part of Wyoming was that the killer had promised to show them where he had buried the victim.
With a storm on the way and communication with the outside world patchy at best, Walt leaves Sancho in charge of the wounded and heads out on his own to track the sociopath. Sancho fills a backpack of supplies for Walt and includes the book he was currently reading, one that was on a list recommended to him by his co-workers. It is Dante's Inferno. Let's see, wasn't Virgil the guide through the different levels of that Hell? I wonder if there could be a connection...
I won't really bore you with the plot. In fact, there isn't much of one except that Walt pushes on through fire and ice, and refuses to give up when any sensible human being would have stopped and waited for the back-up which was on the way. He chases his prey up Cloud Peak, where he's been before in this series. It might as well be named Mystic Mountain, because every time he goes up it, he seems to have a mystical experience involving the spirits of long-dead Indians. Spirits which he refuses to acknowledge or discuss once he gets off the mountain.
This novel was written as a thriller and had very little of the sardonic humor that usually makes the series such a pleasure to read. Moreover, there was little or no interaction with the supporting characters that are so much a part of these stories. It was just all Walt, Superhero, all the way through. It wasn't bad. The connection between Dante's Inferno and that Virgil and Walt's Inferno and Virgil White Buffalo may have been laid on a bit thick, but I found it interesting. The sections featuring Walt's conversations with Virgil White Buffalo were the most enjoyable parts for me. On the whole, though, this was not one of my favorite Longmire stories.
seanchai's review against another edition
5.0
My favorite of the Longmire series thus far. Prisoners escape, including a serial killer, and Walt tracks them through a literal and figurative wilderness after things get personal.
asr2b's review against another edition
3.0
Not my favorite of the series. Seemed too similar to earlier stories and at points strained credulity more than seemed reasonable.