Longmire fans, we have news that’s sure to have you cracking open a couple of Rainiers in celebration…
Bestselling author Craig Johnson has signed a new three-book deal with his publisher, Viking Books (an imprint of Penguin Random House), ensuring plenty more adventures with the sheriff of Absorokoa County, Wyoming. In fact, Walt and the gang are back in action on September 5th in The Western Star.
Check out the plot details for Johnson’s forthcoming thirteenth Longmire novel below!
“Sheriff Walt Longmire is enjoying a celebratory beer after a weapons certification at the Wyoming Law Enforcement Academy when a younger sheriff confronts him with a photograph of twenty-five armed men standing in front of a Challenger steam locomotive. It takes him back to when, fresh from the battlefields of Vietnam, then-deputy Walt accompanied his mentor Lucian to the annual Wyoming Sheriff’s Association junket held on the excursion train known as the Western Star, which ran the length of Wyoming from Cheyenne to Evanston and back. Armed with his trusty Colt .45 and a paperback of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, the young Walt was ill-prepared for the machinations of twenty-four veteran sheriffs, let alone the cavalcade of curious characters that accompanied them.
The photograph—along with an upcoming parole hearing for one of the most dangerous men Walt has encountered in a lifetime of law enforcement—hurtles the sheriff into a head-on collision of past and present, placing him and everyone he cares about squarely on the tracks of runaway revenge.”
Those dying to get their hands on The Western Star can pre-order it here, or wherever else books are sold.
(Note: We believe The Western Star is the first book to be released under Johnson’s new deal, but we’ve reached out to the publisher and his agent for confirmation. This article will be updated as soon as we hear back from one of them!)
UPDATE (March 1, 2017): We just heard back from Johnson’s publisher, who confirmed that The Western Star is not one of the books included in the author’s new deal. That means fans can expect, at the very least, four more Walt Longmire books in the future!