Edithsbookpicks: CraigJohnson: The Highway Man, Viking, Penguin Ran...

Edithsbookpicks: CraigJohnson: The Highway Man, Viking, Penguin Ran...: Craig Johnson: The Highway Man, Viking, Penguin Random House US, 9780735220898, small hardback, Every once in a while I need an armchai...

Craig Johnson: The Highway Man, Viking, Penguin Random House US, 9780735220898, small hardback,

Every once in a while I need an armchair trip to Wyoming , doing so with  sheriff Walt Longmire and his best friend Henry Standing bear, mysteries created by Craig Johnson – his writing reminds me more and more of my beloved Tony Hillerman Navajo novels.   The books provide the basis for a highly successful TV series, streaming on Netflix but I prefer using my own imagination instead.

The latest novella, “The Highway Man”, has just been published, a modern ghost story set in the Wind River Canyon, slightly outside of Walt Longmire’s normal jurisdiction. The book has all the mystical Native American elements so familiar in Hillerman’s novels.

Patrolwoman Rosey Wayman starts to receive mysterious “officer needs assistance” calls, despite the area being known for its lack of radio communication. What is even more startling, they seem to come from Bobby Womack who died a gruesome death in a fire when patrolling the canyon area.  Her supervisor suspects psychological problems doubting Rosey’s sanity and asks outsiders Walt Longmire and Henry Standing Bear to look into the matter. The mystical, enigmatic canyon does not fail to pull them both in, contemplating the existence of ghost legend “The Highway Man”. 

Johnson does a great job resolving the mystery with an ending I will not reveal in case you want to check out this atmospheric mystery. 

I enjoyed every page, can't wait to read the next book coming in the autumn already, “An obvious Fact”. 

Edithsbookpicks: Robert Galbraith: Career of Evil, 9780751563597, S...

Edithsbookpicks: Robert Galbraith: Career of Evil, 9780751563597, S...: Robert Galbraith: Career of Evil, 9780751563597, Sphere, paperback Robert Galbraith is the pseudonym JK Rowling uses to write her detec...

Robert Galbraith: Career of Evil, 9780751563597, Sphere, paperback

Robert Galbraith is the pseudonym JK Rowling uses to write her detective

novels, featuring Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott, his detective assistant.  I had not read any of the previous two novels preceding this one and decided to check out the third book in the series, taking the thriller on holiday with me. It did not provide the entertainment I hoped for, the book is unnecessarily long winded in my view, an overstuffed sofa according to a reviewer in the Guardian which sums it up perfectly.

The book begins by a severed leg of a women being delivered by  courier to Robin at the agency. Cormoran can remember three men in his life who could be crazy enough to commit such an unspeakable act wishing him harm. Two he met during his days as a police officer in the army, one he had the misfortune to spend his coming of age years with, Whittaker, the creepy partner of his mother, once a famous rock groupie to many rock stars but a drug addict in the end thanks to Whittaker’s influence.  Cormoran and Robin start their investigative hunt delving into the lives of these three men. Throughout the novel, the voice of an anonymous person who is clearly the perpetrator, adds bile to the book. I found the subject of severed limbs, pedophiles, deranged people who are afflicted with an illness wishing to be amputated or having a body part removed ,  their discussions on websites disturbing reading. Several times I thought of quitting, also because I felt the book dragged on too much and could have been edited down, but decided to persevere as I wanted to find out who of the three suspects was the one committing the crime. 

Another string running through the novel are  Robin's doubts about her upcoming marriage, whether to marry her long time fiancé Matthew and her and Cormoran’s changing feelings towards another, the boss-employee relationship is evaporating and developing into much more but none of them seem to have the nerve at this stage to confront their feelings.

"Career of Evil" did nothing for me, I did not become a fan of JR Rowling’s detective novels; this will be my one and only one.