New fiction
“The Brothers McKay,” by Craig Johnson. Pepper McKay is dead and the only thing surprising about the event is how someone didn’t off the guy years ago. It’s fair to say Pepper McKay was not well-liked. In fact, he was the most despised man in Absaroka County, and that may be an understatement, for as one person put it, “everyone on the North American continent hated the man”. Yikes! What does this mean for Sheriff Walt Longmire? He is going to have a heck of a time picking through a long list of suspects to find the killer. Walt first looks to McKay’s sons. They are a mixed bunch: a silver-tongued charmer, a worldly reporter, an unsociable monk, and a half-Native son who runs the family ranch in Crazy Woman Canyon. Each son had a motive to kill their father, yet all are claiming innocence. Walt is skeptical of these proclamations, still, he knows since McKay was hated by pretty much everyone, he must widen his net of suspects. What he finds are long-held grudges and long-buried secrets. This case is getting too hot to handle and not just because a wildfire is roaring through the canyon, entrapping Walt as he works to evacuate civilians. There’s a killer on the loose and he’s coming for the longtime sheriff. Will Walt live to fight another day or is his goose cooked?