Craig Johnson – The Cold Dish Audio Book

American writer Craig Johnson’s Western mystery, The Cold Dish (2004 ), is the very first story in the Walt Longmire collection, an ongoing legend following Sheriff Longmire as he keeps the peace in imaginary Absaroka Region in northern Wyoming. A&E developed a preferred television collection called Longmire based upon the books. The success of both the books and the TELEVISION series spawned a yearly celebration called Longmire Day in Buffalo, Wyoming went to by thousands every year.

Longmire is a Vietnam veteran, a widower, overweight, as well as a little a drunk. He and also his replacement. Craig Johnson – The Cold Dish Audiobook Free. Head to a sheep farm to investigate the shooting death of Cody Pritchard. Cody was just one of 4 boys accused of raping a young Cheyenne girl Melissa Little Bird. It was a vicious assault on a woman with medical troubles. The 4 kids served little time as penalty, so Longmire is particular the murder intention is retribution.

Longmire’s duty is to protect the various other three founded guilty young boys, that are surely the next targets. He puts Bryan Keller, that did not participate in or stop the rape, in the sheriff’s workplace for safekeeping. Jacob Esper is fired as well as eliminated right before going to a fishing trip. His twin brother George is not yet familiar with his bro’s destiny yet escapes Longmire, frightened as a result of Cody’s death. Longmire employs the aid of his friend, Henry Standing Bear to track and generate George. They play feline as well as computer mouse; George fires and harms Henry. Longmire and also Henry overtake George in the Cheyenne reservation, where the awesome likewise meets him. George is fired in the arm; Longmire injuries the awesome, yet he escapes.
Throughout the hunt, Longmire struggles to integrate his increasingly lonely personal life. He is not able to shake the memory of his spouse who passed away three years previously, and also the emotional range between himself and also his child distresses him. Henry’s help is a big emotional increase to Longmire.

The list of possible suspects in Longmire’s mind grows. The Cheyenne were specifically upset about the test’s outcome as well as the forgiving sentence for the four kids. The townspeople are likewise upset. Even Henry, who is Melissa’s cousin, is a suspect. Longmire occasionally has doubts about his friend, who is an excellent shot. Longmire brings George and Henry to the hospital and then pursues the killer with Victoria.

Longmire has an idea who the shooter could be. He steps into the house of his recent romantic interest Vonnie Hayes. Indeed, inside, she is clutching the rifle she used to shoot the boys; she is losing a lot of blood. Longmire wants to get her help, but she refuses. She murdered the boys out of revenge. She had also been a victim of sexual assault, only hers had come from her father. He killed himself with the gun Vonnie is holding. She shoots herself.

What separates The Cold Dish from other police procedurals is the Western plains location. Rural Absaroka County is a place where everyone knows everyone and their business. An outdoorsy population, it is split between mostly white cowboys and town folk and the Cheyenne population on the reservation. Although they usually get along, there are occasional scuffles that cause problems for Longmire. Often, the weather and terrain interfere with the investigation. At one point, Longmire and Henry are stuck in a blizzard on a mountain and must be rescued.

There are two strong themes present in the novel. The first, revenge, is directly tied to the title The Cold Dish, which refers to the phrase “revenge is a dish best served cold.” Vonnie’s father shot himself before she was able to exact revenge, so she takes this opportunity to avenge Melissa instead. Even though the four boys are guilty of a heinous crime, it is Longmire’s job to ensure that ‘the cold dish” isn’t served.

Friendship also plays a large part in the story, particularly between Longmire and Henry. Henry is a Vietnam veteran like Longmire and a member of the Cheyenne tribe. Despite their friendship, Longmire has plenty of reason to suspect Henry as the murderer– he’s a member of the Cheyenne who are upset with the lack of justice, he’s related to Melissa, he’s an excellent marksman, and the shells found on the murder scene match a gun that he owns. However, Henry’s loyalty is what pushes Longmire through his depression and helps him find the murderer. Their friendship is an image of cooperation and trust in a county where tensions exist between whites and Native Americans.

Walt Longmire is just wanting to finish out his term as sheriff of Wyoming’s Absaroka county in peace and quiet. That of course does not happen. Young Cody Pritchard is found shot and dumped in with a local farmer’s sheep.
Don’t feel bad for Cody though, he and his buddies violently raped a young Cheyenne girl. They got suspended sentences.
Now someone is seeking justice for that crime.

Walt Longmire is that type of character that grabs my fickle attention. The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson Audiobook (Free Online). Overweight, depressed, likes drinking. Sign me up! He lost his wife 4 years previously and has not recovered from her death yet, he does have the inner sense of good and that makes this book shine.

He was drinking a ginger ale and leafing through a stack of police supply catalogs. I guess she figured we have him chained up in the basement. I asked her about Jim, and she said that he was hunting down in Nebraska with some friends; geese, she said. There was a hesitancy in the way she said it that led me to believe there was something more there. So I used one of my age-old cop tricks and asked her if there was anything else she wanted to tell me. She used one of the age-old mother tricks and just said no. Cop tricks pale in comparison with mother tricks.

This book was wonderful. I was loving it because it was so cute and funny, but then on page ten I found out that a key plot point was the gang-rape of a teenaged girl with fetal alcohol syndrome with many objects besides penises.

I have a real problem with rape books, often having to DNF because I just can’t take fiction on this topic (see The Round House), but fortunately for me Johnson skirted around the rape enough so that I could read this and finish it. If he had gone to any more detail than he had, I would have had to DNF, cute and funny and well-written as the book was notwithstanding. Thanks to Shelby for the encouragement to continue. It ended up being alright and not too rape-focused.

The book starts out with one of the rapists being murdered, years after the rape. Who killed him? Well, who WOULDN’T kill him is the better question, as everyone is angry at the rapists and angry at the very light sentence they received. Would one of the tribe be avenging the girl, as she was a Native American and related in some way to almost everyone on the Rez? Would it be any number of the people who hate the rapists and wanted them to suffer instead of getting off almost scot-free? Why wait years after the crime in order to seek revenge? Is it true that revenge is a dish best served cold?

An older, grizzled white man sheriff is nothing new. Walt is in his 50s, overweight, and clinically depressed. He sleeps for 14 hours at a time and his house is almost unlivable. Ever since his wife died four years ago, he just doesn’t seem to be able to pull it together.

Walt also is funny. He has a very dry, hilarious voice that had me laughing and laughing through the whole book. He’s truly funny.

As she walked into her office opposite mine, all she said was “Don’t ask,” and slammed the door behind her. After a few moments though, she reappeared with her Philadelphia Police mug and a bottle of tequila, had sat down in the chair by my door, threw her feet up on my desk, poured herself a drink and hissed, “All men are assholes, right?” I nodded vigorously, quietly finished my reports as she drank, and then crept out, my back to the wall.

This kind of combination of clinically depressed and yet very funny is too good, and I was enjoying myself immensely.

Another plus with Walt Longmire is that he really likes women. Now, men always say, “I love women!”, but what they mean is “I enjoy fucking women,” which is not the same thing at all. But I feel as if Longmire genuinely likes women, even women he doesn’t have any desire to fuck, and he’s so caring and loving and treats women just as he would a person (>.< So many of these manly mysteries make women into non-people). It’s not like these mystery novels where I feel as if women are objectified or ornamental objects or something. In this way, Longmire reminds me a bit of Spenser, who was also a MC who really liked women. Longmire’s close friendships with both men and women are touching and very believable.

I feel strains of Spenser through all this, although Spenser is more literary and also tougher than Longmire is, Johnson also flirts with Dickens, Shakespeare, Faulkner, and Hemingway in this. Longmire is so sweet and long-suffering, he’s not as tough and capable as you feel Spenser is, but sometimes he surprises you – as with Longmire’s single violent, tough-guy action in this novel (I won’t spoil you). The Cold Dish Audiobook. But unlike Spenser, he gets scolded and lectured for this action by various people.

Johnson introduces complex, interesting side characters here and doesn’t skimp on either good writing or character development. He’s a good writer, and I enjoy reading good writing. It’s relatively rare.