Hell Is Empty (Walt Longmire Series #7)

( 38 )

Overview

This New York Times bestseller deserves the attention of more than just mystery readers (Wyoming Tribune Eagle)

Well-read and world-weary, Sheriff Walt Longmire has been maintaining order in Wyoming's Absaroka County for more than thirty years, but in this riveting seventh outing, he is pushed to his limits.

Raynaud Shade, an adopted Crow Indian rumored to be one of the country's most dangerous sociopaths, has just confessed to murdering a boy ...

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Hell Is Empty (Walt Longmire Series #7)

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More About This Book

Overview

This New York Times bestseller deserves the attention of more than just mystery readers (Wyoming Tribune Eagle)

Well-read and world-weary, Sheriff Walt Longmire has been maintaining order in Wyoming's Absaroka County for more than thirty years, but in this riveting seventh outing, he is pushed to his limits.

Raynaud Shade, an adopted Crow Indian rumored to be one of the country's most dangerous sociopaths, has just confessed to murdering a boy ten years ago and burying him deep within the Bighorn Mountains. Walt is asked to transport Shade through a blizzard to the site, but what begins as a typical criminal transport turns personal when the veteran lawman learns that he knows the dead boy's family. Guided only by Indian mysticism and a battered paperback of Dante's Inferno, Walt braves the icy hell of the Cloud Peak Wilderness Area, cheating death to ensure that justice—both civil and spiritual—is served.

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Editorial Reviews

The Pittsburgh Tribune Review

“Johnson managed a rare feat: a mystery that is a literary novel. The story starts with a hilarious image: Longmire and his deputy sheriff, Santiago "Sancho" Saizarbitoria, hand-feeding a cheeseburger to a manacled prisoner. It gets infinitely more complex from there: an escaped prisoner with dead bodies in his wake; some unlikely unforeseen accomplices and hostages; and Longmire, never one to stand back and wait for help, tracking the criminals through the Bighorn Mountains.”
Denver Post

“Johnson crafts a chilling allegorical tale of resolve and endurance…[and] uses his intimate knowledge of the landscape and wildlife of Wyoming to full advantage, making them characters in the action. Despite the dire situation, Johnson continues to employ gentle, wry humor and an authentic, no-nonsense Western voice in his dialogue, especially in Walt’s thoughts. And the immediacy of Walt’s peril pulls readers into the complex plot. Good stories that take place in the West are in short supply these days, and Johnson’s latest is the real deal with literary clout.”
Wyoming Tribune Eagle

“Truly great. Reading Craig Johnson is a treat…[He] tells great stories, casts wonderful characters and writes in a style that compels the reader forward…He has outdone himself with his newest book, Hell Is Empty…A piece of quality fiction that is built on so many levels that you could read it two or three times and not catch all that Johnson is trying to say…This book deserves the attention of more than just mystery readers. It is a top-notch novel. It is worth both your money and your time.”
The Boston Globe

“With Hell is Empty, Craig Johnson delivers an action-packed Western thriller, rife with evocative setting and literary allusion. This seventh novel featuring wise-cracking Sheriff Walt Longmire creeps stealthily out of the corral with an increasingly tense setup.”
Booklist

“The story starts with a pitch-perfect piece of Johnson’s trademark scene-setting and then roars off into the wilderness, hardly leaving readers time to catch their breaths…In some ways, this reads like a book-length version of the haunting, harrowing final sequence of Johnson’s outstanding debut, The Cold Dish (2005). And when it comes to bad weather, western lore, and a chilling hint of the supernatural, few writers write it better.
ShelfAwareness.com

“A muscular story of guns and grit, man against man and man against nature…the characters’ ascent is indeed hellish, pulling them deeper into a hypothermic fever dream where the line between the living and the dead blurs.”
The Charleston Gazette Mail

“Craig Johnson continues to crank out top-notch mystery novels featuring the adventures—and misadventures—of Walt Longmire, a modern-day Wymoning sheriff…Little wonder that he’s a winner of the Spur Award given by the Western Writers of America.”
The Boston Globe

“With Hell is Empty,Craig Johnson delivers an action-packed Western thriller, rife with evocative setting and literary allusion. This seventh novel featuring wise-cracking Sheriff Walt Longmire creeps stealthily out of the corral with an increasingly tense setup.”

The Pittsburgh Tribune Review

“Johnson managed a rare feat: a mystery that is a literary novel. The story starts with a hilarious image: Longmire and his deputy sheriff, Santiago "Sancho" Saizarbitoria, hand-feeding a cheeseburger to a manacled prisoner. It gets infinitely more complex from there: an escaped prisoner with dead bodies in his wake; some unlikely unforeseen accomplices and hostages; and Longmire, never one to stand back and wait for help, tracking the criminals through the Bighorn Mountains.”

Wyoming Tribune Eagle

“Truly great. Reading Craig Johnson is a treat…[He] tells great stories, casts wonderful characters and writes in a style that compels the reader forward…He has outdone himself with his newest book, Hell Is Empty…A piece of quality fiction that is built on so many levels that you could read it two or three times and not catch all that Johnson is trying to say…This book deserves the attention of more than just mystery readers. It is a top-notch novel. It is worth both your money and your time.”

The Charleston Gazette Mail

“Craig Johnson continues to crank out top-notch mystery novels featuring the adventures—and misadventures—of Walt Longmire, a modern-day Wymoning sheriff…Little wonder that he’s a winner of the Spur Award given by the Western Writers of America.”

Publishers Weekly
At the start of Johnson's stellar seventh novel featuring Wyoming sheriff Walt Longmire (after Junkyard Dogs), Walt and his deputy, Santiago "Sancho" Saizarbitoria, are escorting a trio of convicts through the Bighorn Mountains to meet a convoy of federal agents and sheriffs from neighboring counties. They must determine who gets jurisdiction over a newly opened cold case: one of the convicts, Raynaud Shade, recently confessed to burying the body of a Native American boy, a relative of Walt's friend and spiritual guide, Virgil White Buffalo, in the mountains years earlier. When Shade, who's headed for death row in Utah, escapes and takes off into the wilderness with a blizzard threatening, Walt sets off alone on the killer's trail, despite Sancho's warnings that Shade is leading him into a trap. Soon Walt is past the point of no return as the snow and ice accumulate on a journey that evokes Dante's Inferno, the book Sancho is reading on the expedition. (June)
Library Journal
Wyoming sheriff Walt Longmire sets out to recapture a group of escaped convicted murderers. Among them is Raynaud Shade, who confessed to murdering a young boy and burying his body in the Bighorn Mountains. The boy was the grandson of Virgil White Buffalo, a Crow Indian, introduced in Another Man's Moccasins. The mutual respect and admiration between Longmire and Virgil is crucial in this seventh installment of Johnson's series, as readers are taken on an electrifying and perilous manhunt through the Cloud Peak Wilderness area of Wyoming. A paperback edition of Dante's Inferno, a blizzard, a forest fire, and a colossal amount of mysticism all play central roles as the story unfurls. Is Sheriff Longmire losing his mind as he climbs higher toward Cloud Peak? Is Virgil really there beside him? What is really happening, and what about Virgil's prophecies concerning the future? VERDICT Series fans and readers who enjoy C.J. Box and other authors of Western mysteries will be enthralled by this electrifying and intense work; a triumph. [Ten-city author tour.]—Patricia Ann Owens, Illinois Eastern Community Colls., Mt. Carmel, IL
Kirkus Reviews

For Wyoming Sheriff Walt Longmire (Junkyard Dogs,2010, etc.), the pursuit of a vicious murderer through a killer ice storm in the Bighorn Mountains adds up to a cold day in hell.

Sly, elusive Raynaud Shade is a homicidal maniac and a lawman's nightmare. But at last he's been caught. The confessed slayer of a 7-year-old boy is on his way to the slammer, almost certainly for the rest of his bloodthirsty life. And he knows it. So Absaroka County Sheriff Longmire, who has him in his custody, is quite reasonably uneasy. Not only is Shade a textbook psychopath, profoundly remorseless, he's begun professing an affinity for Sheriff Walt, as if they were somehow partners in delusion, as if Walt, too, were "possessed by evil spirits" that forced him to kill on command. All of which is as unsettling to Walt as it is unavoidable, since the body of Owen White Buffalo, the dead boy in question, was discovered in Walt's jurisdiction. The transport van advances circumspectly toward its destination until, in the mind-blowing ferocity of a sudden mountain storm, the slippery Shade manages to escape. Now a complex game's afoot as lawman chases madman. Before it's played out, the Bighorns, icily nonjudgmental, will have had their way with Walt, narrowing the sanity gap.

Deft as always, but dearly missed from this stark, wintry tale is grizzled Walt's much younger lover, his feisty, tormenting, adorable girl of summer.

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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780143120988
  • Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
  • Publication date: 4/24/2012
  • Series: Walt Longmire Series , #7
  • Edition description: Reprint
  • Pages: 352
  • Sales rank: 37,176
  • Product dimensions: 5.00 (w) x 7.60 (h) x 0.90 (d)

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 38 )
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See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 38 Customer Reviews

  • Posted June 15, 2011

    I Also Recommend:

    The Dark Horse (Walt Longmire Series #5)
    The Cold Dish (Walt Longmire Series #1)

    Not to be Missed.

    I've read all of the Walt Longmire books several times. Hell is Empty is no exception. I read it in a single day, and as soon as I finished the last page I started over again at page one. It is that good. The best thing about the entire series is that Craig Johnson has created characters that are well-rounded, multi-layed, believable, and likeable. They are a pleasure to spend time with. If they were real people you would want to be friends with them.

    In Hell is Empty we get to spend quality time with Walt as he sets out alone through a blizzard in the Big Horn Mountains to recapture a group of escaped prisoners. His ordeal is an allegory that combines elements of Dante's Inferno with Indian lore and mysticism. There is no need to be familiar with The Inferno to appreciate the adventure. It is incredibly well written. Now several days after finishing the book I am still thinking about the ending. Like Walt, I am wondering what was real and what wasn't, and if it wasn't real how did certain things happen.

    Even though this is a serious book, Johnson's trademark wit and humor is still present. Walt's conversations with Hector, one of the escapees, are a riot. I highly recommend this book.

    6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted June 6, 2011

    Cold. Damn cold.

    Should be a great beach read. So much of the book is about the cold you'll get frostbite holding the nook too tight. This book derails a dogged pusuit that balances the physical and the mystical. Gives a fine sense of place - north michigan - and the time -winter- and the mystery of how we do what we do when the body says no but the mind says yes. Stay warm.

    3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted August 1, 2012

    I enjoy the Walt Longmire series and appreciate that the author

    I enjoy the Walt Longmire series and appreciate that the author does not stick to a standard formula. While each book features a mystery for Sheriff Longmire to solve, the heart of the narrative centers around an ensemble of multi-dimensional characters living in Absaroka County, Wyoming, and the nearby Northern Cheyenne Reservation. Each book stands alone although threads of relationships between the main characters carry over. My favorite is Walt’s longtime friend, Henry Standing bear, a larger than life Cheyenne—big, charismatic, tough, and good at everything—who threatens to steal the spotlight from Walt in many of their adventures. The pairing reminds me of Robert Crais’s Elvis Cole and Joe Pike or C. J. Box’s Joe Pickett and Nate Romanowski.

    Hell Is Empty takes place in the frozen, snow covered expanse of the Cloud Peak wilderness during a brutal May snow storm. Longmire is delivering a trio of highly dangerous criminals to a multiagency task force waiting up the road. One of the prisoners is a psychotic killer, a Canadian Indian named Raynaud Shade. When Shade contrives an escape from the federal agents, taking hostages with him, Longmire makes it his personal mission to get Shade and save the innocents. From this point on the plot becomes an allegory for Dante’s Inferno (a book carried by Walt on his manhunt).

    I had mixed feelings about Hell is Empty. The plot delivers an almost unbelievable series of death-defying experiences for Longmire to survive. In fact, given Walt’s age and despite his traditional bulldog tenacity, the physical punishment he undergoes becomes increasingly unrealistic. Add to that, there’s no compelling reason for the pursuit, since Shade moves higher and higher up the west ridge of Cloud Peak until there’s nowhere else to go. The sensible action would be to wait for reinforcements, which are on the way, but instead Longmire pushes on, accompanied and aided by Virgil White Buffalo—or is it Virgil’s ghost taking the part of the literary Virgil who guided Dante through the nine circles of Hell? As Walt becomes more exhausted and suffers the effects of hypothermia, the reader can’t be sure if his experiences are real or simply hallucinations.

    I missed the presenced of undersheriff Victoria Moretti, Basque deputy Saizarbitoria and Henry Standing Bear, who are all relegated to the sidelines by the plot. But my biggest disappointment was the author’s failure to explore the character of Shade, the most deadly and potentially interesting adversary Longmire has yet faced. Instead of getting inside Shade’s head and contrasting his thoughts and actions with Longmire’s as the two struggle up the mountain, the author let’s Shade disappear from the narrative until the very end when he and Longmire meet in a final confrontation. Most of the protagonists in the grittier mystery series have faced a key antagonist: Sanford’s Lucas Davenport dueled with the Iceman, and Burke’s Dave Robicheaux came to grips with Legion Guidry. In my opinion, a big opportunity was missed here for a really riveting duel of wits and strength. Instead the author fell back on an extended version of a winter endurance test covered in the first book of the series.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted June 12, 2011

    Outstanding entry in the Longmire saga

    Usually I wait a while after finishing a book before writing the review. But, since there are almost no words to describe this book I figured, what the heck.

    I've been a big Craig Johnson/Walt Longmire fan for several years now and have always considered his first, The Cold Dish, my favorite. Hell is Empty hasn't surpassed it but it is in a dead heat.

    Walt and Sancho are delivering some prisoners to the FBI when things go bad. Many FBI are killed and the most dangerous of the criminals are on the run, with hostages. Walt makes Sancho stay with an injured officer and takes off after the prisoners. There is a running story line about Dante's Inferno and even if you've never read the entire piece it fits right into the storyline.

    Other than the beginning and the end this book is about Walt, his beliefs, his determination, his amazing abilities to fight on under the most trying of circumstances. Virgil White Buffalo makes another appearance and is a wonderful traveling companion for Walt.

    I'll be thinking about this one for a long time, and will probably listen to it soon just to get the wonderful George Guidall's voice back into my head for Walt, Henry, Virgil and the rest of the cast.

    The only bad part? Having to wait another year for more new stories of Walt and the people of Absaroka County. Well, except for the new A&E series called Longmire -- can't wait to see that either.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted July 4, 2011

    A Modern Western for Those Who Don't Like Westerns

    Hell is Empty is the first book of Craig Johnson's that I have read. It is also the first western that I have enjoyed. The reason? Quirky characters and the wilderness setting. Sheriff Walt Longmire is the main character of this series. In Hell is Empty he is transporting 3 criminals through Wyoming's Big Horn Mountains to another jurisdiction. Each of them are interesting characters but the quickiest and most violent is a sociopath named Raynaud Shade. They get caught in a snowstorm during the hand over with the result being that the criminals escape. However, they are also hindered by the storm. Except for Shade. Shade is a sociopathic killer on his way to life in prison for killing a 7 year old boy. He has no remorse for this crime. What makes him so interesting is that he thinks he and Sheriff Longmire have a lot in common, including being possessed by Indian spirits that force him to kill on command. The dialogue that comes out of his mouth is amusing because he speaks like a classic sociopath and frequently references Dante's Inferno, a book that Longmire is carrying with him. He's an intellectual killer. What's not to like about that?

    The setting plays a major role in the book. Most of the obstacles to resolving the story is the weather in the Big Horn Mountains. As I write this review, I see that the weather does not sound interesting. However, Johnson makes it suspenseful. The reason for the title is found on page 81 and I am not giving any hints. Not only is hell empty, it has frozen over in this novel.

    There are 2 additional reasons why I enjoyed this western, a genre that I normally do not like. One, I have driven through Wyoming and have fond memories of this trip that I took 32 years ago. The scenery is gorgeous. Two, the references to Dante's Inferno were hysterical. I read this book in high school and loved it. Then. I don't think I would be able to get through it today but I remember it well enough to smile when Shade or Longmire mention it.

    Hell is Empty would make a make a great movie but don't wait for Hollywood to take a look at Hell. Find a copy and read it. This modern western is fabulous.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted June 8, 2013

    Ashleey

    Heyo :)

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  • Anonymous

    Posted June 6, 2013

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  • Anonymous

    Posted June 6, 2013

    Party at

    Party result 1 right now. Hi Jesbes. Zack

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  • Anonymous

    Posted June 6, 2013

    NATIVE AMERICANS MAH NIQQAZ

    0_0

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  • Anonymous

    Posted June 6, 2013

    Ree

    I'm wet.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted June 10, 2013

    Jay

    Hey[^_^]

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  • Anonymous

    Posted June 12, 2013

    Jesbes

    Hi

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  • Posted June 2, 2013

    Excellent read.

    Excellent read.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 4, 2013

    Each book out does the last, amazing!!!!!!!

    I started reading the Longmire series because of the tv show. Now it is my favorite series and I can't wait to start each new book. Craig Johnson is a fabulous writer. Everyone should experience his brillant descriptions of Wyoming and the characters that live there.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 3, 2013

    Outstanding...

    As expected!

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  • Anonymous

    Posted November 2, 2012

    Good read!

    This whole series is great. This wasn't my favorite, but still enjoyed it. I only have one left in the series. I hate to finish it.

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  • Posted September 8, 2012

    I enjoy Longmire

    I have read all seven of Johnson's Longmire books. Out of the seven, this one would come in about 5th. I highly recommend this series if you like grissold empathetic sheriffs. Johnson has a way of painting the scenery of Montana that puts you right in the Big Horns. I missed Henry Standing Bear in this one.

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  • Posted September 5, 2012

    fantastic book!

    I couldn't put it down and I didn't really know where it was going. Something unexpected at every turn, and it got me thinking.

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  • Posted July 10, 2012

    Recommended

    Series is fast moving, keeps ones interest, and informative.

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  • Posted May 24, 2012

    Another great Walt Longmire adventure!

    In another dimension where great fictional characters could come to life and be invited to my dinner table, Walt Longmire would have a standing invitation. Craig Johnson has created a terrific character in this Wyoming sheriff, and once again he's sent Longmire off on a troublesome journey. Fans of the previous six Longmire tales will not be disappointed. First-time readers of Craig Johnson's mysteries will surely want to read them all. Can't wait for number eight!

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