A remarkably complete T. Rex skeleton has been found by a young paleontologist on what may or may not be Cheyenne land, or land owned personally by Danny Lone Elk, who mysteriously ends up dead in the Turtle Pond where he often feeds and communes with the ancient creatures before feeding on them. The FBI gets involved because if it turns out the Cheyenne, individually or collectively, do not own the land, it might be federal property, and the government wouldn't want to lose out on the sale of that T. Rex. Lots of nasty business, Walt's family situation takes a turn, and he faces more than one crazy bastard intent on shooting, stabbing or otherwise maiming him. Miraculously, he escapes this time with nothing more than a possible concussion. Tragedy and comedy overlap in the best way, a character who has apparently served his purpose is "written out", and it looks like Cady is coming back to Wyoming. A definite improvement over the last installment ( )

(2015) The latest from Johnson has Longmire trying to figure out how an old Cheyenne rancher died. Turns out he was poisoned by mercury by his son who wanted his father to sell a valuable dinosaur found on his ranch. The grandson and the finder of the bones run off to get married but he also thinks he had killed the rancher mistakenly. In the meantime, Longmire's son-in-law is murdered in Philadelphia and he tries to comfort her and convince her to take a job in Cheyenne that will bring her closer to home. Very good one of the series. I think I have caught up with all of books written.KIRKUS REVIEWSomething old and something new spell big problems for Sheriff Walt Longmire.Walt and Undersheriff Victoria Moretti have been called out to take a look at a body found in a pond. The corpse is that of elderly Cheyenne Danny Lone Elk, part owner of a large cattle ranch. It will take an autopsy to determine the cause of death because Danny's remains have furnished several meals for the turtles he considered sacred. Nearby, Walt and Vic run into a problem on the site of the discovery of a dinosaur fossil dubbed Jen, after finder Jennifer Watt, who along with paleontologist Dave Baumann objects to the use of a backhoe to dig up the valuable beast. The Lone Elk family claims Jen's remains, but Baumann insists that he had his own deal with Danny. Into this heated dispute steps the acting deputy U.S. attorney, who plans to score political points by seizing Jen for the state of Wyoming. While the interested parties wrangle over the bones, Walt welcomes his daughter, Cady, and granddaughter, Lola. They're barely settled at Walt's home when Cady gets a call that her husband, Michael, a Philadelphia police officer and Vic's brother, has been shot and killed in a way that hints it might be payback for one of Walt and Vic's past cases. She and Vic return east while Walt stays behind to work, without Vic's help, on what's now recognized as the fatal mercury poisoning of Danny Lone Elk. With the help of his friend Henry, better known as the Cheyenne Nation, Walt escapes from several dangerous situations in the rough country of Lone Elk Ranch while trying to determine who wanted the old man dead and whether his death is tied to Jen, whose estimated value provides 8 million motives for murder.Johnson's crusty sheriff (Any Other Name, 2014, etc.) remains tough, smart, honest, and capable of entertaining fans with another difficult, dangerous case.Pub Date: May 12th, 2015ISBN: 978-0-525-42693-6Page count: 320ppPublisher: VikingReview Posted Online: March 31st, 2015Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15th, 2015

It's been a year since I last read a Walt Longmire book so reading this one was meeting an old friend and effortlessly catching up with where you left off. Part of that comes from the familiar ensemble cast that I've gotten to know over the previous ten books and which have their own novel-spanning story arc. Part comes from the way Walt Longmire looks at the world with calm compassion, tinged with humour. A lot of it comes from George Guidall's gravelly-voiced narration, which I could listen to all day.

As is often the case with the Longmire books, this one starts off light and a little quirky, slowly drawing me into a situation, a set of people and a location and then gradually becomes darker and sadder, like watching indentations in a rock path fill with water in the rain.

The book opens with the discovery of two bodies, The first is the fossilised remains of a T. Rex that a young palaeontologist and her dog discover while sheltering under a rock overhang. The second is of a body, floating in a lake, surrounded by snapping turtles.

This being the series it is, I knew the two would be related and that murder would be involved and that founding out how everything fitted together would take me on a tour both of the politics and economics of finding and selling a major new fossil and of the family, friends and enemies of the dead man.

All of that lived up to its promise, with the motivations and history being even more complicated than I expected. Along the way, a lot of fun was poked at the posturing of a newly-appointed Acting Deputy Attorney General and Walt was placed in a number of life-threatening situations, mostly involving very bad weather (storms rather than snow this time) and all kinds of people pointing loaded weapons at him.

The one part of this series that I'd grown a little tired of was the importance to the plots of Walt's mystic moments. Maybe it's the atheist in me refusing to let go, but I've always viewed Walt's regular communication with the spirits of dead Cheyenne as a sign of mental illness rather than a finely-tuned spiritual connection. It made me smile that, in this book, Victoria Moretti finally calls Walt on his 'vision thing' and asks if he's ever considered asking a neurologist to check out his brain for faulty parts.

The novel-spanning story arc also moved forward with some bad news that I'm sure will change the course of future books and which added to the slow accumulation of sorrow in the book.

I'm glad I went back to this series again. 'Dry Bones' has refreshed my appetite for the books which is good because, as of 2022, I still have another eight books left in the series.

I strongly recommend the audiobook version 'Dry Bones'. George Guidall's narration is too good to miss. ( )

The usual Longmire gang with the usual interactions. Maybe not as much humor, but there was a death in the family, so that's to be expected. Things happen, but nothing that important, so the story was not as interesting as some. Still, for me it's always a pleasure to visit with these people.

We get a bunch of Lucian in this one, which is always fun. I love some of his outbursts, as an antidote to too much political correctness. In this one, he refers to the highway patrol as Triple-A with guns, and says they "couldn't slap their ass with a patented ass-slapping machine." Typical from him. ( )

The fossil of a Tyrannosaurus rex is discovered in Absaroka County and not long after that the rancher that owned the land the T-rex is found on is discovered dead in a turtle pond. It isn't enough that everyone is fighting over who owns the right to the fossil, now Walt Longmire must figure out if the rancher's death was accidental or murder.

Craig Johnsons books about Sheriff Walt Longmire is a wonderful series, but I do miss the old days when I didn't have to wait a year until the next book. Walt Longmire is a marvelous character, he has that kind of old cowboy way that I love. The John Wayne feeling. Strong, reliable and tough and, as usual, Walt has a tendency to get into problems. I don't think I have read a book in this series when he doesn't end up in any way in the hospital. This book is not an exception. One thing I truly enjoyed was that Walt and Vic finally had the BIG talk that I have been waiting for since I read book nine in series (A Serpent's Tooth), the talked I waited to read in book ten that never happened.

When it came to the T-Rex story must I admit that even though I enjoyed reading it was the stuff around the case that I most liked. It was a difficult case, was it murder or not? Who would, in the end, claim the T-Rex? But the things happening around, a heartbreaking death that I didn't see coming, the openhearted discussion between Walt and Vic and then the realization that an old enemy is back was the best part of the book.

So, in the end, the book gets 4.5 stars. I liked the book very much, but I would have liked a much more intense and interesting case.

I received this copy from the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review! ( )