Tooth and Claw by Craig Johnson
“Craig Johnson is a brilliant writer who skillfully blends dynamic fiction with arresting historical fact and a cast of beloved and believable characters.”
Craig Johnson offers this season’s best stocking stuffer to his serial readers, die-hard fans who, like me, cherish every word and look forward to his annual Christmas short stories. I gave you Tooth and Claw. It’s a fast-paced, action-packed thriller. A novella. New readers will fall in love with this well-read gem.
Published six months after the New York Times bestseller First Frost, this book continues the adventures of young Walt Longmire and Henry Standing Bear, aka Cheyenne Nation. Best friends and trusted allies since they were 12 years old, the two have returned from a four-year tour of duty in Vietnam, but aren’t quite ready to readjust to life in their hometown of Durant, Wyoming. . At the time, no one could have predicted that the two would actually return as Walt the famous sheriff of Absaroka County, or that Henry would become the owner and manager of a bar and restaurant called the Red Pony. Sho.
Tooth and Claw begins in the present day. Walt and Henry Standing Bear, along with a “deputy” and his dog buddy, along with Walt’s mentor, the old sheriff Lucien Connally, visit the Durant Assisted Living Home, where Tuesdays are chess night and serious games are played. are visiting.
This happened to be a frigid New Year’s Eve with temperatures of 12 degrees. It’s the perfect time to get together with old friends and reflect on the past. They sit in a bunch on the patio of room 32, where Lucien, who has a habit of breaking some of the rules of the “old man’s” house, grills steaks on a bootleg grill and smokes a pipe while playing Pappy Van. -I’ve been drinking Winkle Family Reserve 23 Bourbon. .
He cedes the board to the two young men and then considers Henry’s opening move, commenting that the “polar bear system” is a dangerous move that could end in a draw. “Sometimes a draw is a win…especially when you’re dealing with a polar bear,” Henry counters, marking the beginning of the story.
Flashback to dangerously cold Alaska
In late December 1970, Walt Longmire was still reeling from the disappointment of the two weeks he and his girlfriend Martha had spent in Honolulu as “R and R” from Vietnam, and their supposedly solid relationship was on the rocks. When I became , I felt stuck. Returning to the United States from Vietnam, it took him to the most remote place he could find work as a security consultant on an oil rig on the northern slopes of the Arctic Circle, outside the village of Nyquist, Alaska. . The world’s vast oil reserves.
Worried about Walt, Henry Standing Bear heads north and plans a three-day vacation to check on Walt. Please fasten your seat belt. This peaceful excursion soon turned into a dangerous roller coaster on unstable ice floes.
Winters here are dark, cloudy, windy, snowy, and very cold with less than 4 hours of daylight, with temperatures in December typically below -5 degrees Fahrenheit for highs and -17 degrees Fahrenheit for lows. . One member of the security team responsible for safely leading a small U.S. Geological Survey team onto a large patch of tundra ice to conduct a core inspection of the sea ice was “bugged” from an isolated location. When he begins brandishing a butcher knife menacingly, Walt volunteers to take his place, and Henry joins in as well.
confront deadly threats
As if Mother Nature wasn’t threatening enough, some of the crew are clearly unsympathetic to environmentalists whose research into ice bugs could threaten their livelihoods. The leader of a team of young geologists nicknamed “Whammy” was the first to die. With little protection from the frigid cold and traveling in bivalve military transports with open rear openings, the men became “spam in a can” for Nanuluk, a particularly belligerent giant 14-foot polar bear. It may have looked like that.
Upon closer inspection, the white giant was found to have strange ropes, deformities near its shoulders and neck, and missing fur, likely caused by the fire. This bear was a ferocious man-eater who ignored people’s need for food and killed them.
Deteriorating weather, imminent danger from bears, and new casualties lead the team to withdraw from the mission, only to face further difficulties due to unstable ice caused by a sudden and temporary warming. When they discover a ghost ship in the North Pole, the SS Baychimo, a reprieve appears and allows them to board the ship. Unfortunately, it also serves as a den for a giant, bloodthirsty bear.
Henry Standing Bear nearly died from blood loss after raking his back with his extremely long five-inch claws. The death toll mounts and the excitement mounts, but as the reader already knows, Walt and Henry Standing Bear survive and share this harrowing story with Lucian. Henry also successfully rescued a polar bear cub whose mother had been killed by a ferocious bear in its den.
ship lost in ice
SS Beikimo is an authentic Swedish steel-hulled cargo ship built for the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1914 and used to transport fur-trading tribes to remote aboriginal settlements. After serving in World War I, the ship returned to resume the fur trade in the coastal villages of northwest Alaska.
In 1931 she became trapped in the ice and despite several unsuccessful rescue attempts, she was eventually abandoned. The crew hiked to the nearest safe village, then some flew back to the scene and rescued most of the precious cargo. Over the next 38 years, the ghost ship was seen numerous times on the open sea during the summer thaw. A group of Inuit fishermen and hunters last spotted the ship in 1969, when it was once again stuck in the ice. It is believed that she sank that winter.
Craig Johnson says in his recent post-it “North to Alaska”: “I first learned about the SS Baychimo from my father’s literature stack in the attic and a copy of World Wide Magazine from July 1938, which contained an article called “Arctic.””Ghost boat. A legend in her own right, Beichimo has been haunting the North Pole for almost 100 years, moving in and out of the frozen fog. Her last field trip was in 1969, which was chronologically perfect for my and Walt’s purposes. ”
Tooth and Claw expands on the story of the legendary and timeless brotherly love between Walt Longmire and Henry Standing Bear, as they take turns rescuing each other from deadly danger. Craig Johnson is a masterful writer who skillfully blends dynamic fiction with arresting historical fact, and his beloved and believable characters always keep readers eagerly awaiting his next book.
About Craig Johnson:
Craig Johnson is the New York Times bestselling author of the Longmire mysteries, which are the basis for the hit Netflix original series Longmire. He is the recipient of the Western Writers of America Spur Award for Fiction, the Mountains and Plains Bookseller’s Award for Fiction, the Roman Noir Nouvelle Observatory Award, and the Arctic Circle Award. His novel “Spirit of Steamboat” was selected as Wyoming’s first One Book. He lives in Eucross, Wyoming, population 26.
(Photo credit: Tess Anderson Photography)
Publication date: November 19, 2024
Genre: Crime, Mystery
Author: Craig Johnson
Number of pages: 208 pages
Publisher: Viking
ISBN: 9780593834169
