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Viking, $23.95 (first edition)
If Larry McMurtry wrote a mystery, it might be like THE COLD DISH. Walt Longmire, a sheriff near retirement in Wyoming's Absaroka County, relives his town's past crimes when the body of Cody Pritchard is found, shot with a rifle used at the Little Big Horn. The boy was one of four Walt arrested for gang-raping a Cheyenne girl suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome four years earlier, and they didn't do the time. As Walt investigates, he finds a blurred line between victimizer and victim. Johnson works a wonderful balancing act between Walt working the case with his deputies and buddy, Henry Standing Bear, and dealing with its emotional repercussions, while letting us get to know his town and its humorous and very human citizens. You can smell the biscuits and spicy gravy served at The Bee diner and feel the bite of the northern wind. This first novel speaks of a great future.
