The Dark Horse.

Johnson, Craig (author).

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Recent novels in this top-notch series have taken Sheriff Walt Longmire out of his Absaroka County, Wyoming, comfort zone to big-city Philadelphia and to his past in war-torn Vietnam. The Dark Horse treads turf similar to the first and strongest two books in the series but with a twist: Longmire’s in the next county over, and he’s working undercover. It starts with a transferred prisoner who’s been accused of—and confessed to—killing her husband. But Longmire doesn’t believe her and, on little more than a hunch, sets out to prove her wrong. Posing as an insurance claims adjuster (the dead man burned a barn with the horses inside), he checks into a motel that might be the high-plains equivalent of the one in Touch of Evil. Longmire, locally famous, has a hell of a time keeping his cover. From the interesting story frame (past and present slowly converge) to the indelibly inked characters, to the set-piece ending (in snow and lightning on top of a mesa), this is among Johnson’s best, with one caveat: Longmire’s longtime friend, Henry Standing Bear, a character too big for sidekick status, here feels like a tag-along. Fortunately, Longmire’s shoulders are more than broad enough to carry a book.