Kindness Goes Unpunished

A Walt Longmire Mystery

By: Craig Johnson

Narrated by: George Guidall

Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire mysteries are critically acclaimed. Longmire's third outing takes him from Wyoming to Philadelphia to investigate a brutal assault on his daughter, Cady. Walt believes her ex-boyfriend is behind the crime and searches him out. But when he turns up dead, Walt is back to square one.

Listen to all of Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire mysteries.

©2007 Craig Johnson (P)2007 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

"The quick pace and tangled web of interconnected crimes will keep readers turning pages." ( Publishers Weekly)

Once again enjoyed this style of writing

Great mystery and a shot of romance. I’m on to the next book in a great series

A+ for the characters; C for believability

Review of the Audible edition. I love this series. The characterizations feel true to the human condition. I also love the Native American perspectives (In this book, Henry, identifies himself as an Indian. He thinks “Native American” doesn’t reflect how the Indians think of themselves.)

What does drive me crazy - in all fiction - is incredulity: behavior that is utterly inconsistent with a person’s values, common sense, professional behavior, or all three. I lowered the rating for this book because of incredulity - or, Walt’s “Oh, pleeze” actions - on a couple of occasions. Walt would never knowingly endanger his friends and colleagues at the level he does in these sections. Sometimes, his inaction in the face of clearly expected danger is equally incredulous.

This incredulity occurs in most of this series. Still, there are so many positives to these stories that they always tip the them into the most read column for me.

One of his best!

We love Walt because he’s just a good, good man. This is an endearing story yet also action packed, and it has a tearjerker ending!

Loved it

Couldn’t quite listening, great story, the voice was perfect . Going to buy the whole series

The epic humanity of the hero, Walt Longmire.

The spiritual Indian ways of another hero, Henry Standing Bear. And how Henry and Walt are so closely linked although one is an Indian and the other a paleface.

Funny exciting ride

Somehow, though I’ve listened to many episodes, this one had me laughing a lot. Laughing with the storyteller that is. These stories have a lot of quick, funny, timely jokes. It was fun to listen to the story and cue in on the jokes. 

Serious story with some humorous moments...

I chuckled out loud a couple times in the first few pages. That is an excellent omen.

Have to say though, I really dislike dream-sequence scenes. Dreams don't mean anything in real life, why would they mean anything in fiction? Fortunately there were only a couple of these.

The plot is a bit convoluted, but ultimately Johnson does explain it all out, so you are not left trying to figure out how A led to B. Since I don't try to figure out plots before they unfold, I am glad that it was all summarized for me.

I did read the earlier books in the series, but that was awhile ago so I forget the age difference between Walt and Vic...I think it is significant, and, as such, there is a thread of un-believability in this book. But anyway.

My only real complaint is actually the number of characters. I am okay with the regulars (we already met them in earlier books) but there are a couple different bad guys, and some other characters that play a role, and it was actually a little difficult to keep them all straight. 

The narration is excellent. There is no gore or graphic sex or violence and I think there is only occasional swearing. I bought the rest in the series on Audible.

A Great Read

Walt Longmire comes to life, and you'll want to invite him over for supper in Craig Johnson's great mysteries set in the Wyoming. Readers will be refreshed by the accurate descriptions of the daily life and atmosphere of the small town surrounding. I encourage those who enjoy Hillerman to read The Cold Dish.

A fine book with way too much exposition.

I am reading this at the point at which I have already read almost the entire series. I loved all of the things that one loves about Walt and Henry and Vic, etc. However, the move from Wyoming to Philadelphia is of major consequence. The Wyoming locations are central to both Mr. Johnson's books and also to the C. J. Box series about Joe Pickett. Both are terrific reads, but the locations are important, largely because they are so unfamiliar to those of us who live elsewhere and are captivated by the magnificent descriptions of the Bighorn Mountains, the extraordinary winters, the amazing topography and so forth. Philadelphia suffers by comparison to Wyoming, IMHO. The severe injury to Cady is an important motivating part of the plot for Walt and Henry. She is so deeply loved by pretty much all the main Wyoming characters that our sympathy is automatically with her. Also, and I think this part is absolutely central, Cady's injury allows us to see and feel how extraordinarily loving and gentle Walt and Henry both are. They play the tough, silent guy when in Absaroka County, but in Philly they are portrayed as deeply emotional men. I just loved this part of the book. It also allows George to express the emotionality of both men in expansive, dramatic ways: you expect one or the other to say I love you all the way through the book. You know that the love exists, so whether they use the words or not is unimportant.
I had some trouble with the last hour or two of the book. Mr. Johnson tries very hard to lay out all the terribly confusing plots and subplots among the large assortment of bad guys, and maybe good maybe bad guys, and he has to throw in some extremely large expanses of expository prose that I had a hard time digesting. So many characters! So many interwoven, complicated relationships! With whom is Lina, Vic's mom, having sex? Why is Vic's Dad, also Vic, such an immediately hateful person? Who is helping Walt and who is trying to hurt him, and how on earth does anyone keep them straight? I have too many questions.
So, if you are going to skip one book in the series, this might be it. If you can look past the problems that I have with it, and you may well have problems with it that I don't, then fire it right up. All of us Walt lovers are basically unconditional lovers, deeply forgiving souls, who love Walt in spite of all the crazily cowboy, lone ranger stuff that he continually does. Hasn't he ever heard of backup? Even with Henry almost doing it without being asked? You can certainly feel my ambivalence about this book. I am sure that you will decide for yourself, for heaven's sake.

Fun read, IF you like characters more than plot.

This is the third in the series of 9 (through 2013.) These are like police procedurals, so the plot develops slowly. I enjoy the humor and the characters, but no doubt, some will find it slow. They are not action thrillers, but they are not as plodding as the Kurt Wallander series, for example. Walt Longmire is a complicated man, and his bond with Henry Standing Bear and relationship to his deputy Victoria Moretti are a continuing source of amazement. Walt has a penchant for noticing seemingly minor but revealing details. Invariably, I learn more about various subcultures and groups from these stories.

I gather that Longmire is now a TV series on A&E, going into its second season, but I haven't seen any of those episodes.