Book Review

I read 76 books in 2025, the last being Craig Johnson's Longmire novella, Tooth and Claw.

In very late 2024, I found the intellectual murder mystery genre--beginning with Louise Penny's now 20-book Gamache series and followed by William Kent Krueger's now 21-book Cork O'Connor series (book 22 out in August).

I need substantive character development and atmospheric scenery. And, the longer the series, the better.

As I tried to find a third series, I learned that Longmire, the TV show, is based on Craig Johnson's novels, so I set out to conquer his soon-to-be 22-book series.

The first full-length novel, The Cold Dish, is the first book I've completed of 2026.

I'm learning to be a harsher grader, holding back five stars unless the book is truly spectacular and keeps me thinking about it (Louise Penny's The Beautiful Mystery and William Kent Krueger's Spirit Crossing).

So, The Cold Dish gets 4 stars from me.

It is rare I don't pick up on whodunit, but this one got me and it is surprisingly dense and intellectual in its prose (better read in silence than with sports on in the background).

I tend to have more than one book cooking at once, and Johnson's second Longmire story will shortly join the others.

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