Junkyard Dogs

(A Walt Longmire Mystery)

by
Craig Johnson

Viking, May 2010, 306 pp.
ISBN: 978-0-670-02182-6

Genre: Mystery

Subgenre: Sherriff / Western
Reviewed: 5/15/2010

Reviewed by: Conan Tigard

Book Cover

Excerpt

In Geo Stewart's House with Duane . . .

I decided that I could now continue with part B of my plan. "Duane, could I have a glass of water?"

"It tastes like ass."

I stared at him for a moment. "What?"

He stood in the entryway, framed by the stained-glass side panels that led to the dining room. "The water here in the big house comes from the original well, and it's only about sixty feet deep. It's coal water and tastes like ass."

Vic turned her back, and I knew she was trying to keep from laughing. "That's okay; I'd still like a glass of water."

He started toward the kitchen and the dogs followed him, but he stopped when we didn't. "You wanna come into the kitchen?"

I looked down at the melting snow on my over-boots and the filthy, thread-bedraggled carpeting. "I don't want to track into the house any more than I have to."

He acted as if he'd never heard those words arranged in that order before, shrugged, and then ducked into the kitchen with the dogs at his stocking heels.

I stepped to my left and turned the handle of the basement door--locked. I pulled out Geo's key ring and quickly flipped through the older ones, finally selecting the smallest skeleton type.

Vic whispered over my shoulder. "You dog. This is all very interesting for me. I've heard of things like illegal entry, breaking and entering, collusion, and inadmissible evidence, but rarely does one get to see all of it at one time in person."

"Just a little ole-time law and order. Stick around; it's going to get worse. When I take a drink of the water, turn your head the other way and mumble help."

She stared at me. "Is this the accessory part of ole-time law and order?"

"Just put some feeling into it." I slipped the key in the door and unlocked it, opened and closed it, and then redeposited the ring back in my Carhartts just as Duane returned from the kitchen.

He held the glass out to me, and I couldn't help but notice that it looked yellow and smelled like sulphur; the sacrifices I made for my constituency. "Thanks." I stopped just short as I was about to drink and shifted my ear toward the basement door. "Hey, did you hear something?"

Duane looked at me as he petted the dogs. "Nunh-uh."

Vic shrugged.

I brought the glass back to my lips and took a swig of what, indeed, tasted like ass. I swallowed and looked around, especially at the brunette. "I thought I head something."

Duane shook his head. "Nunh-uh, maybe the wind?"

I looked at Vic. "It sounded like somebody crying for help."

The young man pushed his greasy ball cap farther back onto his head. "I didn't hear nothing."

Vic looked at Duane. "I didn't either."

I studied the rusty liquid in the glass and took a deep breath as I raised it to my lips. "Well, I damn well better." Duane continued to watch me, probably amazed that anyone would take a second drink of the water. I got smart this time and just held the glass to my lips and shot a glance at Vic, who covered her mouth for multiple reasons.

She turned her head. "Help!"

Duane turned to look at her. "What?"

I gratefully placed the glass back into Duane's hands and stepped forward, leaning an ear against the basement door. "I'm sure I heard it that time." I twisted the knob as Duane's voice called out from behind me. "That door's locked, there's nobody . . ."

The door swung open, revealing a stairwell that turned at a landing below and continued to the left. There was a light switch on the right, just inside the doorway, and I flipped it on. The full force of heat and humidity wafted up from the basement as I took the first step down. "Duane, it sounds like there's somebody in trouble down here, so I'm going to have a look, okay?"

He moved to the doorway behind me, edging a little in front of Vic. "Nunh-uh, there's nobody down there."

I raised a hand at his protests. "Vic, did you hear something?"

"Maybe . . ." She tromped down the stairs behind me and whispered, "What's my motivation?"

Duane called after us. "Hey, there's nobody down there, she just yelled that."

As I turned the corner at the landing, I looked back up at her. "What, were you going to make me drink the entire glass of water?"

She smiled the crocodile smile. "I just wanted to see if you could do it."

Synopsis

Santiago "Sancho" Saizarbitoria, one of Sheriff Walt Longmire's deputies, gives his two weeks notice and tells Walt that he wants to work in the prison system again. Because Sancho now only has two weeks left, Walt decides to make him lead on the missing thumb case.

Ozzie Dobbs Sr. had begun developing the Redhills Rancho Arroyo subdivision before he died. His son, Ozzie Jr., took over after his death, and had been seen in the junkyard the day before the thumb was found. Ozzie Jr. and Geo have never gotten along. Walt and Sancho pay a visit to the junkyard and leave Dog, the sheriff's dog, in the car. Dog had spotted the two wolf half-breed, Butch and Sundance, that were in Geo Stewart's house looking out the window. Walt didn't want Dog getting into a fight with Butch and Sundance, who look quite tough.

After retrieving the thumb, they soon determine that it belongs to local resident Felix Polk. They talk with Felix and Felix informs them that he lost the end of his thumb splitting wood, but didn't think much about it. Walt runs a check on Felix and finds out that he has a forty year old outstanding warrant in Texas.

After Geo leaves the hospital, Ozzie Jr. shows up at the junkyard to dump more trash and gets into a fight with Geo. With his mother, Betty, in the car, a woman who is secretly dating Geo, Ozzie Jr. intimidates Geo with his car. He accidentally running into Geo and knocks him to the ground, but Geo isn't hurt badly, being a tough old man.

Geo pays a visit it Betty in Ozzie Jr.'s house, and he and Ozzie Jr. get into another fight. Ozzie Jr. hits Geo in the head with a golf club and drops him. In a daze, Ozzie Jr. drives himself to sheriff department and reports what he has done. When Walt arrives at Ozzie Jr.'s house, he finds a frantic Betty but no Geo. Geo had wandered out into the snowy night and headed for home. When they find Geo, he is lying in a junkyard car and he is dead. Ozzie Jr. is arrested but soon escapes out a small window in the bathroom wearing nothing but a bathrobe. After tracking him through the snow, Walt find him sitting on a bench with a bullet hole in his chest.

While paying a visit to Geo's house, Walt and Vic discover Duane's huge marijuana farm. Duane had kept it secret by using the old tunnel as the cultivating ground that ran from the basement out into the woods. Knowing that Duane is not smart enough to set up this complex undertaking, Walt figures that there has to be someone else pulling the strings and financing the operation.

While talking with Felix and telling him that Texas has dropped the charges, Felix heads into the bathroom and returns with a gun. Walt doesn't see him, but Sancho, who is outside, drops Felix with a single shot. Sancho is visibly shaken by his first killing and leaves his job before the two weeks is up.

With bodies piling up and down a deputy, Walt and Vic must determine who is the head honcho of the pot-growing business and who killed Ozzie Jr. With their main suspect dead, evidence soon suggests that it isn't Felix who was running the show.

Junkyard Dogs is a the sixth mystery book starring Sherriff Walt Longmire and is written by Craig Johnson.

Review

Junkyard Dogs is a mystery set in a small town in Wyoming. Sheriff Walt Longmire returns with his quirky sense of humor and his foul-mouthed deputy to solve another murder. His second deputy is ready to leave the force and return to a quieter life working in the prison system. But when a lopped off thumb is found in a junkyard, a tale of illegal drugs and murder is soon to follow.

The first half of the book introduces some fairly wacky characters, like Geo and Ozzie Jr. Geo is a tough old junkman that lives with his grandson Duane, Duane's wife Gina, and his two dogs, Butch and Sundance. Geo has a way of doing things that must have been passed down generation to generation. Although they aren't always the smartest solutions to the problem, they seem to work. Ozzie Jr. is a man who is just trying to make ends meet and finds himself in a world of debt. He has a plan on how to solve this problem, but ends up being murdered before it can come to fruition. Duane is just a good ol' country boy who knows how to fix older cars (not ones that have computers in them, mind you). He is not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

The first half of the story is more about character development and interaction than it is about a mystery. In fact, the only mystery in that part of the book is the missing thumb and whether Sancho is really leaving the sheriff department. I didn't want Sancho to quit, but sometimes people have to find their own way. I was glad, I know this is going to sound really strange, when Ozzie Jr. was murdered. Now we finally had a real mystery to solve.

The pace of the book picks up in the second half and rockets forward at warp speed until the final chapter. I couldn't wait to find out who was behind the murders . . . yes, I said murders, because there are more than one, and whether Sancho was really going to quit. If Sancho quit, who would Walt hire to replace him?

Overall, Junkyard Dogs is another great story in the Walt Longmire mystery series. I really like the atmosphere in these books and the way Walt goes about solving a mystery. He is a very persistent officer and always catches his perpetrator, even if he gets beat up or nearly killed while doing so. In the end, I truly enjoy the Walt Longmire books and all of the strange country folk that inhabit the pages.

I rated this book an 8½ out of 10.