Dry Bones by Craig Johnson

Published by Viking on May 12, 2015

A dispute over ownership rights to the bones of a T-Rex is complicated by the death of the landowner who accepted money from the High Plains Dinosaur Museum for the right to dig them up. The mess gets messier when the FBI intervenes, claiming that the bones are on public land and therefore belong to the United States government. The Cheyenne are also asserting a claim to the dinosaur remains. Walt Longmire would like the whole mess to go away but first he needs to solve the suspicious death of the landowner, which leads to a murder mystery with a half dozen suspects for the reader (and Walt, together with series regulars Lucian and Henry) to ponder.

Longmire is still having visions which, in the hands of most other writers, I would consider a cheesy gimmick, but the visions play only a minor role and they suit the offbeat stories that Craig Johnson tells. Longmire novels are always fun and this one is no exception. Walt's laconic wit and Craig Johnson's breezy style make the novels a joy to read. But, fun as it is, this Longmire novel is more moving than most. There is often family drama in a Longmire novel but Dry Bones introduces a family crisis that is sure to form the central plot in one of the upcoming novels. As always, I look forward to reading it.

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