Review: The Western Star by Craig Johnson

FacebooktwitterFacebooktwitter

The Western Star is the 13th book in the excellent and beloved Longmire series of mysteries by the bestselling and award winning author Craig Jonson. I’ve posted reviews for a few of them here since I started the blog and with this new one released just last week I think the time has come for a honest and spoiler free article.

Before I get to tell you my impressions let me say that I listened to all of Craig Johnson‘s works in audiobook format, performed by the fantastic George Guidall and that I love each and everyone of the stories. MrJohnson is one of my favorites authors out there and his writing style is just perfect for me. The western settings, the clever mysteries, the witty and funny characters makes every second of his books worth the year long wait between installments.

In The Western Star our dear Sheriff Walt Longmire is visiting his daughter and at the same time tries to keep a ruthless criminal behind bars. While at a firing range, alongside some of his fellow sheriffs, one of them, a young one, spots Sheriff Longmire in a picture that will put the listener or reader on the right track for a mystery that will keep everyone tight in there seats for the, 7 hours and a half, thrilling train ride of their life.

Sign Up for Audible 30 Days Trial and Get 1 Free Audiobook of your choice

You could guess that there is a train, a murder, or two, a mystery, guns, intense action, a journey through the mountains and an imminent danger, but you will never figure out who did it, why and what this has to do with Walt in present days since all that happened over 40 years ago. All you can do is to find a nice place, I suggest a cosy train ride :), and wait for it all to end…

Craig Johnson is giving tribute to Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express with The Western Star, but he delivers also a story that spans over 40 years. I loved the way the plot was revealed, I enjoyed the Younger Walt Longmire and I cared deeply for some of the characters. This book should be made into a movie after Netflix finishes with the last season of Longmire later this fall.

The much loved actor and award winning narrator George Guidall returns once again for the audiobook and gives life to all of Craig Johnson‘s characters. He is funny, compassionate, scary, terrifying or gentile. He can do all sorts of voices and accents, from the easy going Sheriff Longmire, to a lady on the train, to a mad inmate in a facility for mental patients.

 George Guidall paints a beautiful picture in the listener’s mind, a vivid picture in which the narrator takes whoever is listening to an entirely new level of immersion and narrative depth. For me he is perfect for this series and he shows his love for the characters with every new performance.

Fans of Craig Johnson or the Mystery genre should already have this audiobook In their Audible Library, but if by chance they were waiting for more impressions let me assure everyone that The Western Star delivers another great and unpredictable story.

Title: The Western Star; Author: Craig Johnson; Publisher: Recorded Books; Genre: Western / Mystery; Duration: 7h:39m

 

Publisher’s Summary

The 13th novel in Craig Johnson’s beloved New York Times best-selling Longmire series, the basis for the hit Netflix series Longmire.

Sheriff Walt Longmire is enjoying a celebratory beer after a weapons certification at the Wyoming Law Enforcement Academy when a younger sheriff confronts him with a photograph of 25 armed men standing in front of a Challenger steam locomotive. It takes him back to when, fresh from the battlefields of Vietnam, then-deputy Walt accompanied his mentor Lucian to the annual Wyoming Sheriff’s Association junket held on the excursion train known as the Western Star, which ran the length of Wyoming from Cheyenne to Evanston and back. Armed with his trusty Colt .45 and a paperback of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, the young Walt was ill-prepared for the machinations of 24 veteran sheriffs, let alone the cavalcade of curious characters that accompanied them.

The photograph – along with an upcoming parole hearing for one of the most dangerous men Walt has encountered in a lifetime of law enforcement – hurtles the sheriff into a head-on collision of past and present, placing him and everyone he cares about squarely on the tracks of runaway revenge.

 

Get more Audiobooks in the Longmire series

Get more Audiobooks performed by George Guidall

FacebooktwitterFacebooktwitter
The following two tabs change content below.

Victor Dima

Founder, owner and Editor in Chief at The Audiobook Blog
Victor Dima is an internationally recognized Audiobooks Industry specialist, consultant, insider and reviewer with almost 10,000 helpful votes on Audible. Listened to more than 1,400 audiobooks, have written reviews for almost 400 and rated close to 800 of them. If you want Victor to review your audiobook or if you need help with choosing the right narrator, you can get in touch at reviews@theaudiobookblog.com

You may also like...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *