Craig Johnson Books in Order

Craig Johnson writes the Walt Longmire novels - the sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming, a laconic Vietnam-and-Notre-Dame lawyer's-daughter widower who solves cases across the least-populated county in the least-populated state, with his Cheyenne best friend Henry Standing Bear and his deputy Victoria Moretti. The series is at its peak run right now: twenty-two novels in twenty-two years, one a year like a metronome, The Brothers McKay (2026) the newest. The Netflix television series (2012-2017, six seasons) doubled the readership, and the books keep the fuller cast - this page sequences all twenty-two (2004–present).

Where to start

The Cold Dish (2004), novel one - the revenge-plot against four boys now grown, and the book that sets Walt, Henry, Vic and the Absaroka landscape. The series builds its cast steadily, so start here.

Does the reading order matter?

Strict publication order, and the series earns it: The Cold Dish (2004) through The Longmire Defense (2023) run one novel a year, with the cast compounding - Walt's daughter Cady, the Cheyenne Nation's politics, Vic's career, Henry's obligations. Recent run: Next to Last Stand (2020), Daughter of the Morning Star (2021), Hell and Back (2022) - the series' strangest book, a psych-ward two-hander - The Longmire Defense (2023), First Frost (2024), Return to Sender (2025), and The Brothers McKay (2026), the newest. The novellas - Spirit of Steamboat (2013), The Highwayman (2016), Tooth and Claw (2024) - sit beside the line without breaking it, and the Wait for Signs collection gathers the short stories. The television Longmire (A&E, then Netflix, 2012-2017) adapts the early books loosely and stops at season six

Which one is the best?

The Cold Dish (2004), the blueprint; Hell Is Empty (2011), the snow-mountain Dante chase; Hell and Back (2022), the structural gamble that paid.

Related guides

Readers finishing this shelf usually want the map next door: Longmire books in order, Tony Hillerman books in order, Joe Pickett books in order. Every guide follows the same format — the shelf, the entry point, the honest answer about order.

Make it a project

Pick a session size and let the days accumulate — at the pace our reading speed test measures, most shelves above clear in a few weeks of half-hours. Every guide on the books in order shelf follows this same format, and when a book lands, its 8-question quiz is waiting on the original book quiz.