Another Man's Moccasins - George Guidall, Craig Johnson
 
Even better storytelling than usual, with some key insights into Longmire's history.
 
"Another Man's Moccasins" unfolds two mysteries, separated by decades, in tandem. Longmire himself is the only obvious link. As he solves the modern-day mystery of a Vietnamese girl murdered in Wyoming, he has to revisit his experiences as a young military investigator in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive in 1968.

 

Craig Johnson raised his game for this fourth Walt Longmire mystery. With perfect pacing, he managed to keep me tense and keep me guessing about both mysteries.

 
 

The Vietnam part of the story shows a young Walt Longmire that is not yet the Sheriff he will one day become but who already has the cornerstones of his character deeply embedded. The action sequences in Vietnam are fear-filled, violent, completely unglamorous and credibly explain how it was that Walt came to be so heavily decorated without ever seeing himself as a hero.

 
 

The modern-day part of the story focused on the abuse of power and pulled no punches in describing how badly the justice system can treat a huge, taciturn Crow warrior, even when he has served his country with honour and how processes that are set up to do good can be twisted to deliver something as evil as human trafficking.

 
 

By the end of the book, as well as have two mysteries satisfactorily solved, I understood a lot more about Longmire's empathy for those who have been badly treated and his controlled but always present anger at those who abuse power.