Longmire Books in Order

Walt Longmire - sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming, widower, Vietnam vet, the most patient man in crime fiction - anchors Craig Johnson's literary Western series that has delivered a novel a year since 2004 with almost no wobble. The books are cozies in sheriff's clothing: Cheyenne Nation mysticism, dry frontier wit, a small recurring cast (Henry Standing Bear, Vic, Dog), and murders that open windows onto the modern West. The television adaptation ran six seasons and was rescued by Netflix after cancellation, sending a decade of viewers back to Durant, Wyoming (2004–present).

Where to start

The Cold Dish (2004), the first. It introduces Walt, Henry Standing Bear, Deputy Vic Moretti, the Cheyenne reservation setting, and the series' quiet tone - a revenge plot against four boys acquitted of a crime, investigated by a sheriff who doubts himself. Readers who want the strongest single novel first are often pointed to The Dark Horse (#5) or Another Man's Moccasins (#4, the Spur Award winner that alternates Vietnam flashbacks with the present case) - both work near-standalone - but the friendships are the series' spine and they begin in book one.

Does the reading order matter?

Publication order, and after the first four the series settles into one novel per spring. The novellas are optional and genuinely standalone - Spirit of Steamboat (2013) is a Christmas blizzard story, The Highwayman (2016) a Highway Patrol ghost story, Tooth and Claw (2024) a train mystery - and the story collection Wait for Signs gathers twelve shorts. One structural note: Hell and Back (#18, 2022) is the series' strangest novel, a fever-dream set mostly outside Wyoming, and it lands better with the run behind you than cold.

Which one is the best?

The Cold Dish remains the standard answer for the whole series' tone. Another Man's Moccasins (2008) won the Spur Award and is the critics' pick; The Western Star (2017), the 1970s-train flashback, is the structural high point and ends on the series' biggest cliffhanger; Depth of Winter (2018), Walt alone in Mexico, is the boldest departure. The Longmire Defense (2023) is the recent fan favorite.

Related guides

Readers finishing this shelf usually want the map next door: Joe Pickett books in order, Louise Penny books in order, Kay Scarpetta 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.