HELL IS EMPTY by Craig Johnson is a Western thriller in the best sense with a sneakily funny sheriff who will push himself beyond all limits in his search for justice.
Sheriff Walt Longmire must escort sociopath, Raynaud Shade, deep into the Big Horn Mountains in search of a young boy's body Shade murdered ten years ago. When Raynaud escapes, taking hostages with him, Longmire has no choice but to plow through the coming blizzard to ensure justice is served.
HELL IS EMPTY brings the West to life with beautiful settings, clever dialogue, and an action-packed story. Mr. Johnson has his own special magic in creating characters so richly imagined that I wish I could invite them to dinner. They're the type of characters who are extraordinary in their actions and deeds but who remain very down-to-earth and approachable.
The literary references in the book are cleverly used and add another layer to this already suspenseful story. Walt's journey up the mountain and into Cloud's Peak eerily resembles the descent Dante makes into Hell. The title itself is part of a quote from Shakespeare's The Tempest; Hell is empty and all the devils are here. Both references add to the setting, anchoring the plot and journey the sheriff must make to see justice through.
Walt's fight is not only with Raynaud Shade but with nature and himself. He must fight against his physical limits and in doing so confront his beliefs. The spiritual nature of the quest for justice is thought provoking, touching, and at times brings a good laugh. It's a nice change to bring humor to an issue that can be highly charged and Craig Johnson handles it well.
This is the first Walt Longmire mystery I've read and I will be going back to find the previous books in this series. HELL IS EMPTY is definitely a book I'll look forward to rereading.
Well-read and world-weary, Sheriff Walt Longmire has been maintaining order
in Wyoming's Absaroka County for more than thirty years, but in this riveting
seventh outing, he is pushed to his limits.
Raynaud Shade, an adopted Crow Indian rumored to be one of the country's
most dangerous sociopaths, has just confessed to murdering a boy ten years
ago and burying him deep within the Bighorn Mountains. Walt is asked to
transport Shade through a blizzard to the site, but what begins as a typical
criminal transport turns personal when the veteran lawman learns that he
knows the dead boy's family. Guided only by Indian mysticism and a battered
paperback of Dante's Inferno, Walt braves the icy hell of the Cloud Peak
Wilderness Area, cheating death to ensure that justiceβboth civil and spiritualβ
is served.
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