Welcome to another edition of Inside the Cover.

As always, it is great to be with you here on PBS Kansas, the home of seriously good book talk.

Over the past few weeks, we have discussed several nonfiction books.

So I thought it was time to put the spotlight on one of my favorite fictional characters.

It is now time to go inside the cover.

I recently discovered the author Craig Johnson and his protagonist, Walt Longmire, the long time sheriff of Absaroka County, located in north central Wyoming.

The book series debuted in 2004, and there are now 26 Longmire books in print, with another scheduled for 2026.

As of the taping of this show, I have read 11 of the Longmire books.

Craig Allan Johnson was born on January 16th, 1961, and he grew up in Huntington, West Virginia.

He attended college at Marshall University.

Johnson now lives on a ranch, where he built a residence in the town of Ucross, Wyoming, population 25.

Sheriff Longmire is a fascinating character.

He served with the Marines in Vietnam, and he was a deputy under Lucian Connally, who now serves as a mentor and foil to Longmire.

Longmire is tall, strong, witty, and determined.

He is adverse to technology, and a central element of Walt' character is the extraordinary willingnes to risk his life to help others.

His tenacity, keen awareness and quic thinking, lively sense of humor, and steadfast adherence to a set of values sustains him in the face of even the greatest peril.

Longmire is a widower still struggling with the death of his wife.

Longmires best friend is Henry Standing Bear, a Native American and fellow Vietnam veteran.

One of the things I really appreciate about Johnson is his readily apparent respect for Native American history, culture, and traditions.

This is demonstrated throughout his books.

Johnson is also clearly enamored with the rugged, beautiful, desolate, and often challenging landscapes of Wyoming.

I just finished Hell is Empty, which was copyrighted in 2011.

It is the seventh book in the series, and in it, Longmire is pitted against a sociopathic murderer, Raynaud Shade.

He also finds himself battling Mother Nature as he trails Shad into the Cloud Peak Wilderness in the Big Horn Mountains during a raging blizzard.

The mountains are a place of extremes, and this is a novel about extremes.

As with most literary series of any sustained success, Johnson provides us with an intriguing and interesting set of continuing character to accompany Sheriff Longmire.

In addition to the aforementioned Connally and Henry Standing Bear, there is Victoria ‘Vic Moretti, Walt's Italian undersheriff from Philadelphia, with the coarse vocabulary.

Ruby, his long time dispatcher who manages the department, and Walt, with post-it notes, and his deputies Sancho and Ferg.

There is also Cady, Walt's lawyer daughter and his granddaughter Lola and Dog, the huge German Shepherd Saint Bernard mix that came into Walt's life in the very first book in the series, The Cold Dish.

The Longmire series is fun and I highly recommend it.

One final note I would suggest if you are new to this author and this character, that you read the books in order of publication.

More so than other series, Johnson's books really do build upon each other.

That's our show.

We have featured the author Craig Johnson and his Sheriff Walt Longmire series.

By the way, if you like C.J.

Box, you will like Johnson.

Good night.

I look forward to our next get together and conversation here on PBS Kansas.