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A review by samhouston
Hell Is Empty by Craig Johnson
3.0
Hell Is Empty (2011) is Craig Johnson’s seventh “Walt Longmire Mystery” and the author returns here to an approach he hinted at in one or two previous novels in the series. Walt Longmire is flying solo in this one…as in completely alone in his search for the bad guys. The book’s other main characters (love interest Vic Moretti, best friend Bear, the old sheriff, and pretty much everyone except Sancho, the newest deputy) are not to be heard from until the book’s epilogue. Sancho is around in the first third of the book, and Vic has a few lines of telephone dialogue to her credit later on, but that is just about it.
And that really doesn’t work well.
This series, like all the good ones, is all about the characters readers have come to know and love and how those characters relate to each other. It is about little side-plots involving several of them, and about how these people evolve over time. There is none of that here. None
What we have, instead, is a passable story of a dedicated Wyoming lawman who takes it upon himself to track down and kill one of the most dangerous criminals in the history of criminals. Under weather conditions that would kill a man half his age, Longmire endures numerous near-deaths to finally get his man. But, frankly, it’s all a bit blah when compared to most of the previous six books – this could have been any anonymous sheriff as far as the reader likely cares - and I hope that Johnson got back to normal with book eight.
I’ll soon find out as I continue my quest to catch up on the entire series.
And that really doesn’t work well.
This series, like all the good ones, is all about the characters readers have come to know and love and how those characters relate to each other. It is about little side-plots involving several of them, and about how these people evolve over time. There is none of that here. None
What we have, instead, is a passable story of a dedicated Wyoming lawman who takes it upon himself to track down and kill one of the most dangerous criminals in the history of criminals. Under weather conditions that would kill a man half his age, Longmire endures numerous near-deaths to finally get his man. But, frankly, it’s all a bit blah when compared to most of the previous six books – this could have been any anonymous sheriff as far as the reader likely cares - and I hope that Johnson got back to normal with book eight.
I’ll soon find out as I continue my quest to catch up on the entire series.