Junkyard Dogs

Written by Craig Johnson

Narrated by George Guidall

Craig Johnson's rough-and-tumble hero Walt Longmire is quickly becoming a fan-favorite and a critical success. Here Walt has his hands full as greedy land developers employ shady, violent methods to reverse their fortunes in recession-racked Wyoming. "It's the scenery-and the big guy standing in front of the scenery-that keeps us coming back to [these] lean and leathery mysteries."-New York Times Book Review

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 2, 2010
• ISBN: 9781449828349

Craig Johnson

Craig Johnson es el director principal de ministerios de la Iglesia de Lakewood con Joel Osteen, que supervisa todos los ministerios pastorales y es el fundador de la Fundación Champions y los centros de desarrollo del Club de Campeones para necesidades especiales, con más de 75 centros en todo el mundo. Craig es el coautor de Champions Curriculum, un plan de estudios cristiano de alcance completo para aquellos con necesidades especiales. Es autor de Lead Vertically que inspira a la gente a ofrecerse como voluntario y a construir grandes equipos que perduren y Champion que habla sobre cómo el viaje milagroso de un niño a través del autismo está cambiando el mundo. Craig y su esposa Samantha, tienen tres hijos: Cory, Courtney y Connor.

Reviews for Junkyard Dogs

[Linda McGary · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love the stories never ending plots and love your sense of humor thru out all your books. George Guidall makes your tales thrilling.
Austin Texas has no basements do to the shale rocks and George, Mr Guidall, sinsenmilla has the ll pronounced ee sounds. I learned that over the last four decades.
Love y'all

[bensdad00 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Not many authors would attempt to bury the lede 1/3 of the way into the story. In this case it works.

[ellsbethb · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book made me happy I now deal with Oregon "winters" instead of full-blown Wyoming winters I experienced in the past. It was another good Longmire read.

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire series is consistently excellent and number six, Junkyard Dogs is no exception. Actually this volume is my favorite one so far. The story opens just before Valentine’s Day and Montana is in a deep freeze. Walt’s love-life has cooled off, mostly due to his own waffling and one of his deputies has given notice. To top things off things are not quite what they seem at the Stewart’s Junkyard, and what starts off as a funny family incident quickly escalates into a very dangerous case.This episode felt like a homecoming. Walt is back working out of his office in Durant and all the usual side characters are front and center. With Ruby on the front desk, Dorothy at the diner, and Henry along for the ride, all Walt needs to do now is settle his mind and heart over Vic. I am getting a little worried about Walt as he is being hesitant in other areas of his life as well. This almost cost him his life, or at the very least a bad mauling a few times during the course of story.Wyoming is served up to the reader on a large plate, the author’s descriptions remain one of the many reasons why I love this series. Some of the other reasons are the great characters, the small town feeling, the humor, the sarcasm, the action and adventure. All in all, Junkyard Dogs was great way to show that this series still packs a punch.

[catherine_dilts · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I didn't expect to like this novel as much as I did. Junkyard Dogs is a fast paced story with twists and turns to the mystery, and crazy yet believable characters. I'm definitely a Longmire fan now.

[tsmom1219 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another fine installment in the Longmire series. This one is set in February and made me happy that I don't live in Wyoming. I don't think I could survive a winter there.

[jbreedlove_6 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A smooth read and a murder quickly solved in a Wyoming winter. I'll keep going but these books are starting to feel the same.

[midwestms · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Always funny

[waldhaus1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I like this novel the best so far. The mystery seems more alive to me. Characters from prior episodes become better developed. Winter is a character in this novel - sometimes a white hat sometimes a black hat. The behavior of characters is unexpected enough to add to the mystery. The final resolution as clarified in the epilog is satisfying.

[stephanie_m-868484 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

the writing is first-rate, the setting rugged, and the characters, whom I adore, are quite engaging. I plan to read deeper into the series. 5 stars.

[laytonwoman3rd · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

With Walt Longmire's proclivity for getting himself busted up, frozen and mauled, it seems odd to look on this series as comfort reading, but boy howdy, these books sure serve that purpose for me. It's always winter in Wyoming, it seems, but this one is longer and colder than usual---everyone is getting really tired of it, and Longmire is worried about losing a couple deputies. His most recent recruit, Santiago Saizarbitoria, is having trouble recovering psychologically from being badly wounded in the line of duty, while also adjusting to life with a newborn son. Victoria Moretti is getting a little spikey about the personal aspects of her relationship with the boss. Walt's having pretty strong thoughts about the allure of a New Mexico retirement himself. But life goes on...and occasionally stops abruptly---so he has work to do. The latest sequence of events involves the Stewart family, owners and operators of the local junkyard, where something peculiar seems to be going on in the big old Victorian house they live in. The first chapter of this novel is hysterically funny, and a perfect illustration of Johnson's genius at storytelling; once he's got you laughing, he's GOT you, even as things get darker, bloodier and more Faulknerian with every page. My only quibble with this one is that there is too little of Henry Standing Bear's amazing presence in it.

[bcrowl399 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book. I like to read books in order, but even out of order, they're great. I'm going to go back and read the books in this series that I've missed.

[nhlsecord · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great characters, one of which is the locale, great descriptions - even of the junkyard - complete with humour, drama and mystery.

[buffalogr · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The sixth book in the series featuring Sheriff Walt Longmire is a lot of fun, All of our favorites are back in this one: Sancho, Lucien, Vic, and Dog. The tension with Vic is noticeable.Really loved the characters in this one! The case this time involves an unusual death at a junkyard guarded by two vicious animals of great reputation.

[michelynn2016 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

my favorite Longmire thus far. I thought my dad was the only one to say "it was enough to gag a maggot off a gut wagon". Kept me laughing too

[csdaley-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This one started a little slow for me but picked up considerably by the end. It was probably a 3.5 for me but I still enjoyed it.

[kvrfan9 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm a fan of the Longmire TV series, and that's what drew me to this, my first Longmire book. If others are drawn to the books for a similar reason, they should know that the literary Longmire is different from the TV version. He's not as laconic, and exhibits a frequent sense of humor. Consequently, the stories--though they do include murders, etc.--feel a lot lighter than what the scriptwriters have done with them.

Junkyard Dogs was an entertaining read, but I prefer my Longmire on TV. Seems a deeper character. For a character more like the TV Longmire, read CB Matthews' Bad Country.

[cbl_tn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I tried to get a straight answer from his grandson and granddaughter-in-law as to why their grandfather had been tied with a hundred feet of nylon rope to the rear bumper of the 1968 Oldsmobile Toronado.If the first sentence sounds grim, it's anything but as Sheriff Walt Longmire deals with just one more incident involving the accident-prone Stewart family, proprietors of the local junkyard. The severed thumb the Stewarts found is just the thing to keep Walt's deputy, “Sancho”, occupied while Walt figures out a way to keep him from quitting. Then there's deputy Vic Moretti, who's even surlier than usual with Valentine's Day reminding her of the “off again” status of her romantic relationship with her boss. Farce turns to tragedy with the news of Geo Stewart's death following an assault at the hand of his antagonistic neighbor. Evidence at the scene of Geo's death suggests the case may be more complicated that it first appeared.This sixth series book reads a lot like a cozy mystery, with relationships between Walt and many of the secondary characters at the forefront in the first half of the book. Seemingly unconnected threads are all tied up neatly by the end of the book. While the humor makes it an entertaining read, it's not as satisfying or as memorable as other books in the series.

[crazybatcow · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Well... not sure what there is new to say about this book. It's as solid as all the other Walt Longmire books. There are no surprises here, no unexpected behaviour, and the mystery is not overwhelmingly complicated. It's a character study (or rural Wyoming community character study perhaps), not an action or suspense novel. If you didn't like Walt, or the early books, there's not a chance you'd like this one either. It's just another chapter in Walt's life.There are some humorous moments (mostly tongue in cheek humor) and, otherwise, it's a straight forward, moderately paced story about the activities some people get up to in Walt's world.I will be reading the rest of the series.

[labdaddy4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I jumped ahead to this (#6) novel in the Sheriff Longmire series after reading the author's first novel. This was just as engaging and enjoyable as the first. There was a bit less character development but by this point in the series the primary characters are very well-established.The story is fast paced and very easy to read. The inclusion of vivid descriptions of the natural world in which the story is set adds quite a bit to the enjoyment.. I think I will jump ahead a bit in the series to see if it is still running strong then I will drop back and finish out this journey reading Johnson's novels in the order they were written.Also of note - a TV series based on these novels ran for 3 seasons on A&E and will run for a fourth on Netflix. They are a lot of fun too !!

[ecw0647 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the sixth or seventh Longmire book I’ve read and it has the most delightful beginning. I won’t explain other than to drop a few hints: a rope, cleaning a chimney, a bumper, a 72-year-old, lots of snow, and waving while going down the street.The plot of the book is nothing special but the relationship between the characters is. That’s what makes these books. You get to know and like them.The ending has a certain slapstick quality to it even as the violence escalates. Good series. I suggest reading them in order.

[viviennestrauss · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Really loved the characters in this one! Trying to slow down as there are only 3 or 4 left in this series.

[jphamilton-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One of Johnson's funniest books. I've read five of them, so far, and I'm not done yet. For a reader who avoids mysteries, I'm just a sucker for the humor that comes from so many different characters in a Walt Longmire mystery. It's smart ass all the way.

[samsattler · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I came to Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire mysteries pretty late, but that does give me the advantage of being able to read them in the order in which they were written over a fairly short period of time. In "Junkyard Dogs," the sixth book in the series, I was happy to find that Johnson returned the sheriff to the confines of his own county and state. The previous two novels in the series saw Longmire working in Philadelphia and then going undercover in an adjacent Wyoming county to his own. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but the locale (and the issue of being undercover) meant that the books focused almost entirely on Longmire and that his fine supporting cast was barely mentioned.It's different this time around. Walt finds himself involved with two of the town's oldest families, families that are immersed in a "romantic" feud of their own making that ends up exposing all of them to the heavy hand of the law for various crimes. One of the key characters is actually Walt's old third grade teacher, a woman who has come into her old age so gracefully that she still turns the heads of men a decade or two younger than her. The setting allows Johnson to catch his readers up on the relationship and character development of all the other key players in the book: Walt's best friend Harry Standing Bear and his romantic interest, Vic Moretti, among them.The Walt Longmire mysteries are more than just mysteries. In fact, I do not consider the mystery of each book to be its most important element. The books are more a chance to visit with some old friends in a remote little Wyoming outpost that almost starts to feel like home after a while. If you haven't read the Longmire series yet, do begin with the first book and go from there...have fun.

[delphimo_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Johnson provides an excellent escape from the humdrum existence of daily living. The venture into the life and times of Sheriff Walt Longmire is filled with many laughs, and a little sadness. Henry's part seems to be smaller with each book, and Vic and Sancho have filled the void. The time of the year is February, and Wyoming is not the state for Saint Valentine. Of course, Walt's body undergoes more damage. Can any human survive all his injuries? Cady is planning a wedding to Vic's brother, and she still has not talked to Walt about the upcoming wedding. In this novel, many residents are murdered, and I wonder when the town population will be zero. Johnson writes an interesting book with all the twists and turns, especially the introduction of pumping air into a syringe to kill a person.

[condorena · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As a suffocating heat wave wraps it’s humid tentacles around the denizens of the middle latitudes and winter is thankfully a dim memory one can imaginatively slide into a Wyoming bone chilling winter along with Walt Longmire and his crew of friends and fellow law enforcement officers of Absaroka County.
As in any town there are people who actions defy belief but that make perfect sense to them and the story begins with Walt trying to figure out why a grandfather in his seventies has ended up in a ditch after having been towed a few miles by a car. I know people like this, you know people like this and so you settle in for w winter’s tale.
Walt is tired and as cold as the winter for several reasons. His daughter Cady had returned to the east to plan her wedding, for some reason leaving him out of the loop, one of his best officers is having second thoughts about his career, he has worries about his heath that he is trying to suppress and lastly he won’t let go and have the relationship he wants and needs in his love life. As always he suppresses all his concerns in the job and the job always comes through.
The case this time involves an unusual death at a junkyard guarded by two vicious animals of great reputation. The corpse is old George Stewart himself who was recently smacked in the head by a golf club swung by an irate neighbor who lost his temper. But this isn’t what killed the old man. Before many days follow the bodies are dropping like dominos and the thread that ties them together is hard to find.
Walt has to look with in families to try and find connections and he unearths secrets that are deeply hidden. There are always many kinds of people that live in any community. Those that have been there for ages and those who saw the potential of the area and come to change it. This does not always make for peace.
I can always count on Craig Johnson to tell a great tale and bring me into his Wyoming world for several hours. This was a great trip.

[bookswoman · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Craig Johnson and Walt Longmire are two of my favorite men. Craig because he writes so well, and Walt because Craig writes him so well!

This is the sixth Walt Longmire book so starting to read one is like a chance to visit with good friends. Walt is smart and funny and so real you feel like you know him personally, Vic is her normal snarky self but there is a heart of gold behind those mouthy defenses, and the rest of the cast is there in their supporting roles. Not as much Henry Standing Bear as I would like, and I believe Walt only ate twice at the Busy Bee so didn't get as much wise council from Dorothy. Sancho was the main regular supporting cast in this one and the storyline was so well done that you were kept guessing if he would or he wouldn't (you'll have to read the book to find out *what* he's doing).

What starts with a found thumb evolves into a complicated story that involves land development, drugs, family entanglements and a freezing February in the high plains to make it more miserable for Walt and the cast.

Highly recommended, but if you haven't read any of the series before I highly recommend starting at the beginning and getting to know the characters they way there should be known, from the first words in the first book.

[ethel55_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Staying close to home in this mystery. Walt has a 'find' to delve into at the junkyard, made all the more mysterious by an incoming housing development's bad feelings about the Municipal Solid Waste Facility (what Geo Stewart would prefer the junkyard be known as). Walt's whole office, his best friend Henry, Ruby's granddaughter at the hospital--all the characters play such important roles, even if they are small roles in this particular tale. I didn't realize when I started this series how much this contemporary western series would capture my mind. There is truly something for everyone with the richly drawn characters and solid sleuthing.

[sunnysd_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Stewart family made a number of poor choices, but the two that toppled the whole stack of cards were very, very simple. Two of them decided to clean the chimney, and one of them decided to go shopping. And then there was the thumb in the cooler....Johnson turned an urban legend into a great opening scene, and then he just kept on running.

[magnumpigg · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I thought this the weakest of the series so far. The dialog was snappy as usual and the locale/surroundings as comfortable and familiar as an old pair of shoes but the crime took a while to get going and it just wasn't that interesting a crime.