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The Cold Dish

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Plot Summary

The Cold Dish

Craig Johnson

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2004

Plot Summary
American author Craig Johnson’s Western mystery, The Cold Dish (2004), is the first novel in the Walt Longmire series, an ongoing saga following Sheriff Longmire as he keeps the peace in fictional Absaroka County in northern Wyoming. A&E developed a popular television series named Longmire based on the books. The success of both the books and the TV series spawned an annual festival called Longmire Day in Buffalo, Wyoming attended by thousands every year.

Longmire is a Vietnam veteran, a widower, overweight, and a bit of a drunk. He and his deputy—foul-mouthed Philadelphian Victoria Moretti—head to a sheep farm to investigate the shooting death of Cody Pritchard. Cody was one of four boys accused of raping a young Cheyenne girl Melissa Little Bird. It was a vicious attack on a girl with medical problems. The four boys served little time as punishment, so Longmire is certain the murder motive is revenge.

Longmire’s duty is to protect the other three convicted boys, who are surely the next targets. He puts Bryan Keller, who did not participate in or stop the rape, in the sheriff’s office for safekeeping. Jacob Esper is shot and killed just before heading for a fishing trip. His twin brother George is not yet aware of his brother’s fate but evades Longmire, scared because of Cody’s death. Longmire enlists the help of his best friend, Henry Standing Bear to track and bring in George. They play cat and mouse; George shoots and injures Henry. Longmire and Henry catch up with George in the Cheyenne reservation, where the killer also meets him. George is shot in the arm; Longmire wounds the killer, but he gets away.



Throughout the hunt, Longmire struggles to reconcile his increasingly lonely personal life. He is unable to shake the memory of his wife who died three years earlier, and the emotional distance between himself and his daughter saddens him. Henry’s help is a big emotional boost to Longmire.

The list of possible suspects in Longmire’s mind grows. The Cheyenne were particularly angry about the trial’s outcome and the lenient sentence for the four boys. The townspeople are also upset. Even Henry, who is Melissa’s cousin, is a suspect. Longmire occasionally has doubts about his friend, who is an excellent shot. Longmire brings George and Henry to the hospital and then pursues the killer with Victoria.

Longmire has an idea who the shooter could be. He steps into the house of his recent romantic interest Vonnie Hayes. Indeed, inside, she is clutching the rifle she used to shoot the boys; she is losing a lot of blood. Longmire wants to get her help, but she refuses. She murdered the boys out of revenge. She had also been a victim of sexual assault, only hers had come from her father. He killed himself with the gun Vonnie is holding. She shoots herself.



What separates The Cold Dish from other police procedurals is the Western plains location. Rural Absaroka County is a place where everyone knows everyone and their business. An outdoorsy population, it is split between mostly white cowboys and town folk and the Cheyenne population on the reservation. Although they usually get along, there are occasional scuffles that cause problems for Longmire. Often, the weather and terrain interfere with the investigation. At one point, Longmire and Henry are stuck in a blizzard on a mountain and must be rescued.

There are two strong themes present in the novel. The first, revenge, is directly tied to the title The Cold Dish, which refers to the phrase “revenge is a dish best served cold.” Vonnie’s father shot himself before she was able to exact revenge, so she takes this opportunity to avenge Melissa instead. Even though the four boys are guilty of a heinous crime, it is Longmire’s job to ensure that ‘the cold dish” isn’t served.

Friendship also plays a large part in the story, particularly between Longmire and Henry. Henry is a Vietnam veteran like Longmire and a member of the Cheyenne tribe. Despite their friendship, Longmire has plenty of reason to suspect Henry as the murderer—he’s a member of the Cheyenne who are upset with the lack of justice, he’s related to Melissa, he’s an excellent marksman, and the shells found on the murder scene match a gun that he owns. However, Henry’s loyalty is what pushes Longmire through his depression and helps him find the murderer. Their friendship is an image of cooperation and trust in a county where tensions exist between whites and Native Americans.



As of 2018, there are fourteen novels in the Longmire series.

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