Dark Horse signed by Craig Johnson

What a ride is Dark Horse (Viking $25). I swear Johnson gets better every book. He writes me he's bought a new cowboy hat for his book tour. Go, Craig.

Walt Longmire, that often conflicted, frequently rueful, shrewd sheriff of Wyoming's Absaroka County, is a man I call a true hero for he's afraid-but he acts anyway. Then there's Walt's friend, Henry Standing Bear, as stalwart a backup as you'd like, and the new recruit, Dog (literally, a big beast).

And in this novel, a remarkable and missing horse called Wahoo Sue whose spirit breathes life into the nearly defeated Mary Barsad who is charged with murdering her husband. Her plight sends Walt undercover, posing as an insurance man, in CampbellCounty to see what the dickens is about to blow Powder River country sky high if Mary and the lid on the crime aren't kept locked down in Walt's jail....