“The Brothers McKay” is the 22nd book in Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire series. Johnson is one of the most literary authors in the mystery genre. You cannot read any of his books without learning something new. This fact makes reading his books a truly enriching and exciting experience.
Walt, Johnson’s main character, is not your typical lawman. He has vast knowledge of the classics and a strong moral code that is sometimes tested in his search for the truth and justice.
In this novel, the list of this classic knowledge is off the charts. There are chess moves, biblical and Latin references, and quotes from George Orwell and Abraham Lincoln, just to name a few. But the biggest literary allusion and homage is to the great Russian 900+ page novel, “The Brothers Karamazov” by Fydor Dostoyevsky. A book gifted to Johnson when he was 15.
The adventure opens in the fall. Walt, Absaroka County sheriff, and his undersheriff/fiancee/The Terror, Victoria Moretti are heading to the O’Kay Guest Ranch after the discovery of the owner’s body, Pepper McKay. Pepper is well known and hugely unliked. Also, Walt has a history with the victim. It turns out many in the county will not be saddened by his death, if not joyful even.
On the way, they run into a traffic jam because of a wildfire near the highway. Wyoming, like present day Colorado, has had a dismal winter and is in the throes of a dangerous drought. The area is ripe for a devastating disaster.
After arriving and checking out the body, Walt hopes for a simple case of accidental death. If it is a suspicious one, then he will have an overwhelming number of suspects to eliminate to find the guilty party. After Walt’s wish for a speedy closure is dashed, the fun begins.
At the ranch are Pepper’s three legitimate sons, David, Ian and Alan and his illegitimate son, Manx. Also present are the ranch’s caretakers, Gary and Lynn Lyman. This is not an overwhelming number of suspects, Walt thinks. But as the investigation continues, he discovers there were many more people there, and he is inundated with way more suspects to eliminate.
Complicating the investigation – and Walt’s personal and official life – is the arrival of one Maxim Sidorov. As longtime Johnson fans will remember, Maxim was introduced in 2023’s “The Longmire Defense.” In that novel, Maxim, a spy, and others almost killed Walt, while Walt was instrumental in Maxim losing an eye. After Maxim became an informant, Walt is now saddled by being designated as his parole officer.
One of Johnson’s many gifts as a writer are his colorful and complex secondary characters. This novel is chock-full of them. The four brothers are vastly different. The oldest, David, is the most like his father, drinking and womanizing. Ian is a journalist in Denver. Alan, surprisingly, is a novice monk at a Wyoming monastery. The youngest, Manx, was born on the ranch to a Native worker, who died when he was only 4. Gary and Lynn raised him and he has stayed and worked on the ranch his whole life.
The West and Wyoming where Johnson lives are rife with all kinds of characters. This provides him with fertile ground in his fictional cast of characters. Not the least of memorable characters is one who never utters a word, but is instrumental in Walt’s attempt to survive a monstrous wildfire. This character will probably live on in his future.
“The Brothers McKay” is a heavy with themes of family dynamics, mental anguish, spiritual and religious conflicts, moral failures and strengths. Although this is a thinking person’s tale, the mystery of who done it and why, is still gripping and causes pages to fly by. It is one of Johnson’s best novels yet.
Leslie Doran is a retired teacher and freelance writer.
