I've been eagerly awaiting this novella since I heard author Craig Johnson talk about it at an author signing last summer. It was worth the wait, not because it's a rip-snorting little mystery that ties in with all the other Walt Longmire whodunits, but because it says so much about the heart, the compassion, and the determination of the memorable characters Johnson has created. Readers get to see what these folks do when they're not out solving crime-- and it's every bit as enthralling as those mysteries.

A woman intrudes on Sheriff Walt Longmire's Christmas Eve tradition of reading A Christmas Carol, and with every question she asks about former sheriff Lucian Connally, she bears an uncanny resemblance to the ghost of Christmas past. Walt doesn't recognize her even though she seems to know him-- and she insists that she has something that must be returned to Lucian. With his daughter and his undersheriff in Philadelphia, Walt is at loose ends, so off to the Durant Home for Assisted Living they go.

Lucian is several tumblers into a bottle when they get there, and he swears he's never seen the disappointed woman before. Dejected, she whispers, "Steamboat," and the story she begins to tell whisks them all back to Christmas Eve in 1988 and a record-breaking blizzard... to Walt's first year as sheriff... and to a terrible crash that left three people dead and a little girl who had only one chance for survival: being flown to a Denver hospital in an old wreck of a decommissioned plane flown by an alcohol-fueled World War II veteran.

As Johnson says in his acknowledgements, "sometimes it's not so much about the suspense of killing characters off in a book, but rather, of trying to keep them alive." Trying to keep these characters alive on that plane in that weather is a nail-biter for readers. Johnson keeps us nibbling and chewing by carefully setting the stage-- pinning our hopes on that rickety old plane named for an animal that anyone would recognize if they've seen a Wyoming license plate. Once the stage is in place, the characters climb on board, and these characters who place a little girl's life above their own? Well, each of them made my eyes well up with tears and a lump form in my throat. I wanted to hug the stuffing out of all of them-- and I wanted to climb on board, too.

This tightly woven tale is laced with nerve-wracking action and lashes of Johnson's trademark humor. Spirit of Steamboat is a perfect, emotionally satisfying story whose re-reading may turn into my own Christmas Eve tradition. If any of you have hesitated to read Craig Johnson's books, this is the absolute best way to test the waters. If Johnson doesn't have you hooked in the short 160 pages of this book, then it's just not meant to be.

But I honestly can't believe that's possible.

Share/Like this Review?

Damn, but that Craig Johnson can tell a story!

According to the acknowledgments in the front of the book, Johnson sat down to write a short story about a small Christmas miracle involving the folks in his Walt Longmire mystery series. As you probably know, the books spawned the wildly popular A&E television series, Longmire. In a matter of days, the story had reached 80 pages and was still going strong, so he and the publishers made it a novella and published it in a small hardcover book.

I am ever so glad they did.

DISCLOSURE: The publishers provided me with a free review copy of this book. That did not affect my opinion of it. I would have bought the book in a New York minute had they not sent me one before it was available to the general public.

The result was this lovely little book, Spirit of Steamboat. As a long-standing fan of the Walt Longmire booksone of the true believers who was on board long before the TV people ever heard of WaltI was a bit disappointed for a couple of reasons when I first received this book. Im not a sentimentalist who gets big kick of Christmas stories. I love the Longmire stories, so it seemed a waste to have such a short little book when a bigger, more involved tale would be so much more satisfying.

Bad thinking, old man. The book is wonderful. It starts with a mildly puzzling visit from a young woman who wont tell Walt who she is. She wants to see Lucian Connally, the feisty one-legged old timer who was the sheriff before Longmire took over. Lucian lives in the local rest home these days. As they visit, Walt and Lucian recall an eventful night in a towering blizzard more than twenty years earlier. The book flashes back to tell the story of that memorable night.

In a horrific Christmas blizzard, there has been a car accident. All die but one young girl, who is so badly injured that only the advanced surgeons and equipment in Denver can save her, but only if they can treat her in the next few hours. The roads are closed and the weather is so severe that even medical helicopters are grounded.

In an unlikely but thrilling series of events, Lucianin a drunken near-stuporagrees to fly the girl to Denver through the roaring storm in a derelict old Mitchell B25 with a painting of Wyomings beloved bucking bronco logo on the side. The horse in the picture was named Steamboat, and so is the aircraft.

The adventure of getting the old crate ready to fly and then trying to manhandle it through the once-in-a-hundred-years storm is absolutely terrifying and exhilarating. Craig Johnson will keep you on the edge of your seat the whole way through the book, telling the story as no one else can. I dare you to try to put it down before you finish it. This is a definite read-it-in-one-sitting experience.

I would love to tell you all about my Air Force connections as a veteran and son of a career USAF bombardier. Id love to tell you about my Wyoming roots and experiences being stranded out in the windswept Wyoming high country where every snowstorm is a blizzard. But not many of you would care all that much to hear it, so I will restrain myself.

Suffice it to say that even without an Air Force background and Wyoming roots, you will love this rip-roaring, thrill-a-minute experience. You too may be breathing hard from exertion and tension while you read. There may be tears involved. Go read this book; dont wait for Christmas. Do it now.

Share/Like this Review?