At a recent party at my local bookstore, a person recommended the novels of Craig Johnson when I said I liked C. J. Box. I'm reading his The Dark Horse now. I found his style clipped and annoying at first but now I'm really starting to like it. The novel is about a Wyoming misfit, Walt Longmire. Stay tuned.
Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire mysteries have now inspired a TV series on A&E. The series just had it's season finale last night (Sunday, Aug. 12, 2012), and I was happy to learn that it has been renewed for a second season.
I don't know how close the series resembles the novels, or whether any of the episodes are taken from the novels. I also haven't read any of the novels, but I want to check them out. But in any case I have really gotten into this series--which is possibly a reflection of how much I miss Wyoming. It's also true that show combines two genres, contemporary Western and police procedural, both of which I enjoy.
In the TV series anyway, Walt Longmire is the sheriff of the fictional Absaroka County, Wyoming. I bear in mind, however, that "Absaroka" is sort of the nickname for the region east of the Big Horn Mountains and extending up into Montana "where the rivers run north." Also, Craig Johnson, author of the novels, lives in Ucross, which is on the county line between Johnson and Sheridan counties, Wyoming. So those of us who have been to Buffalo and Sheridan and across and up to Lightning Flat can enivision the geography of the area. Unfortunately the series is not actually filmed in Wyoming; it's filmed in New Mexico, near Santa Fe. Still, the show has a real feel of place to it. I've also gotten into all the characters.
If the first season is released on DVD I expect I will buy it.
Here's a link to the IMdB entry for the show:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1836037/FRiend Lee, is there any update on
The Dark Horse?