HELL AND BACK (2022) ***
by Craig Johnson
This paperback edition published by Penguin, 2023, 336pp
© Craig Johnson, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-29730-8
Blurb: What if you woke up lying in the middle of the street in the infamous town of Fort Pratt, Montana, where thirty young Native boys perished in a tragic 1896 boarding-school fire? What if every person you encountered in that endless night was dead? What if you were covered in blood and missing a bullet from the gun holstered on your hip? What if there was something out there in the yellowed skies, along with the deceased and the smell of ash and dust, something the Northern Cheyenne refer to as the Éveohtsé-heómese, the Wandering Without, the Taker of Souls? What if the only way you know who you are is because your name is printed in the leather sweatband of your cowboy hat, and what if it says your name is Walt Longmire . . . but you don’t remember him?
Comment: Enjoyment of the 18th book in Craig Johnson’s series of Sheriff Walt Longmire mysteries will depend on how much you buy into the mystical elements the author has built into the series. Whereas in other novels these elements have mostly been held in check, here Johnson stretches them across a full novel. As a result, we have a much more ponderous story, which gets bogged down in its own mythology and lacks the character spark of the other books in the series. It takes place directly after the events of the previous book, DAUGHTER OF THE MORNING STAR, but is set inside the head of a comatose Longmire. In the outside world, Vic and Henry Standing Bear are searching for the missing lawman. To facilitate this, Johnson mixes first-person and third-person narrative for the first time (the books have always previously been written from Walt’s point of view). The experimental nature of the story and the writing style make the book stand out from the rest in the series, but also means that for anyone unfamiliar with the series, it will be confusing and perhaps something of a slog. For fans, there is enough here to keep turning the pages, with references to Longmire’s backstory littered throughout. A mixed bag then and something of a disappointment after the last book’s return to the series’ strengths.
