Craig Johnson Books in Order (Updated September 10, 2026)

Craig Johnson is an American mystery writer best known for Walt Longmire, the longtime sheriff of fictional Absaroka County, Wyoming. The books combine murder investigation, Western landscapes, humor, friendship, Cheyenne culture, family history, and occasional encounters that leave room for both spiritual and rational interpretations.

The Longmire bibliography contains twenty-two main novels through The Brothers McKay, several novellas, shorter stories, and two story collections. Publication order is the safest route because Walt’s relationships with Henry Standing Bear, Victoria Moretti, Cady Longmire, Lucian Connally, Dog, and other recurring characters develop continuously.

The reading advice is simple: start with The Cold Dish

Some later Longmire stories take place decades before the opening novel, but they were written after readers already knew Walt. Starting chronologically would reveal his younger life before Johnson intended and would interrupt the gradual development of Absaroka County and its recurring cast.

• Best first book: The Cold Dish.
• Best order for the twenty-two novels: Publication order.
• For the shorter books: Insert them by publication date or read them later as companion stories.
• For a chronological reread: Use First Frost and Tooth and Claw to visit Walt and Henry before the main series.

The 22 Walt Longmire novels in order

1. The Cold Dish (2004): Sheriff Walt Longmire investigates the murder of a young man whose death may be connected to an earlier sexual-assault case involving four local teenagers and a Northern Cheyenne girl.
2. Death Without Company (2006): The death of an elderly Basque woman at a local care facility appears natural until former sheriff Lucian Connally insists that Walt investigate, uncovering secrets from decades earlier.
3. Kindness Goes Unpunished (2007): Walt travels to Philadelphia to visit his daughter Cady, but the trip becomes a criminal investigation after Cady is violently attacked and her condition becomes critical.
4. Another Man’s Moccasins (2008): The body of a Vietnamese woman found along a Wyoming highway forces Walt to confront memories of his service in Vietnam and a murder case from his youth.
5. The Dark Horse (2009): Walt goes undercover in a remote Wyoming town because he doubts that a woman jailed for killing her abusive husband is actually guilty.
6. Junkyard Dogs (2010): A series of bizarre incidents surrounding a junkyard family escalates into violence, murder, property disputes, and one of Walt’s more darkly comic investigations.
7. Hell Is Empty (2011): A prisoner transport into the Bighorn Mountains goes disastrously wrong, forcing Walt to pursue escaped killer Raynaud Shade into a dangerous wilderness.
8. As the Crow Flies (2012): Walt and Henry Standing Bear witness a woman’s fatal fall while preparing for Cady’s wedding, turning what should have been a family event into an investigation on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation.
9. A Serpent’s Tooth (2013): Walt encounters a young man searching for his mother and is drawn into a case involving a secretive religious group, powerful families, and criminal activity stretching beyond Wyoming.
10. Any Other Name (2014): Lucian Connally asks Walt to investigate another lawman’s apparent suicide, sending the sheriff into neighboring Campbell County and a mystery involving missing women.
11. Dry Bones (2015): The discovery of a massive Tyrannosaurus rex fossil on disputed land is followed by the death of the property’s owner, forcing Walt to navigate murder, federal interests, tribal claims, and valuable paleontology.
12. An Obvious Fact (2016): Walt and Henry attend the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota, where a crash involving a young rider leads to drugs, old relationships, biker culture, and another criminal investigation.
13. The Western Star (2017): Walt remembers a 1972 train journey involving Wyoming sheriffs and an old murder investigation while dealing in the present with consequences that lead directly toward the next novel.
14. Depth of Winter (2018): Walt travels alone into Mexico after his daughter is kidnapped, confronting cartel leader Tomás Bidarte and entering one of the most action-focused stories in the series.
15. Land of Wolves (2019): Recovering after the events in Mexico, Walt returns to Wyoming and investigates the death of a shepherd while unusual wolf activity and personal doubts complicate the case.
16. Next to Last Stand (2020): The death of veteran Charley Lee Stillwater leaves Walt with part of a painting and a shoebox containing one million dollars, leading him toward the mystery of Custer’s Last Fight and a possible art theft.
17. Daughter of the Morning Star (2021): Tribal Police Chief Lolo Long asks Walt and Henry to protect star basketball player Jaya Long, who is receiving death threats while the disappearance of her older sister remains unresolved.
18. Hell and Back (2022): Walt wakes in Fort Pratt, Montana, without his memory and finds himself confronting the history of a boarding-school fire and experiences that blur the boundary between physical danger and the supernatural.
19. The Longmire Defense (2023): A search in the Bighorn Mountains leads Walt to reopen the 1940s murder of Wyoming State Accountant Bill Sutherland and to discover that the rifle involved belonged to Walt’s grandfather Lloyd Longmire.
20. First Frost (2024): A dual timeline alternates between present-day consequences from The Longmire Defense and 1964, when young Walt and Henry travel across America before reporting for military service.
21. Return to Sender (2025): Walt searches Wyoming’s Red Desert for missing rural mail carrier Blair McGowan and goes undercover on her enormous postal route, where the case leads toward an unusual cult.
22. The Brothers McKay (2026): Hated rancher Pepper McKay is murdered in Crazy Woman Canyon, leaving his four very different sons as obvious suspects while a second death and a wildfire make Walt’s investigation increasingly dangerous.

The Brothers McKay, released May 26, 2026, is Longmire novel twenty-two and the newest full-length book available as of this update.

The Western Star and Depth of Winter should be read back to back

Most Longmire novels resolve their main investigation, but The Western Star ends by pushing Walt directly into the crisis that dominates Depth of Winter.

The first book moves between an old train investigation and Walt’s present. The second takes the resulting personal threat into Mexico. Reading another Longmire title between them weakens one of the clearest direct transitions in the series.

Daughter of the Morning Star and Hell and Back form another important pair

Daughter of the Morning Star examines threats against Jaya Long and the disappearance of her sister while engaging with the crisis of missing Native women.

Hell and Back continues emotional and thematic material connected to the case and takes Walt into Fort Pratt, a place associated with a deadly nineteenth-century Indian boarding-school fire. The second novel is intentionally stranger and more psychologically disorienting.

The Longmire Defense leads straight into First Frost’s present-day storyline

In The Longmire Defense, Walt’s investigation reaches into his own family history when evidence points toward his grandfather. The case pushes him into decisions with serious consequences.

First Frost returns to those consequences in its present-day chapters while alternating with Walt and Henry in 1964. This makes First Frost both a continuation and an origin story.

Longmire novellas and shorter books in publication order

Craig Johnson has written a substantial amount of shorter Longmire fiction. These stories are optional for the main novel sequence, but some add important history to Walt, Henry, Lucian Connally, and Absaroka County.

1. Divorce Horse (2012): Walt becomes involved in a compact mystery involving a missing horse and a case that mixes Absaroka County humor with his normal investigative instincts.
2. Christmas in Absaroka County (2012): Holiday stories place Walt and his friends inside smaller Christmas-season incidents that emphasize character and community more than large murder investigations.
3. Messenger (2013): Walt, Henry, and Vic encounter a dangerous situation during what begins as an ordinary trip into the Wyoming outdoors.
4. Spirit of Steamboat (2013): A woman arrives at Walt’s office on Christmas Eve asking for Lucian Connally, leading Walt to remember a desperate 1988 flight through a Wyoming blizzard during his first year as sheriff.
5. The Highwayman (2016): Walt and Henry investigate strange radio calls received by Rosey Wayman from a highway patrolman who died decades earlier on an isolated Wyoming road.
6. Tooth and Claw (2024): After returning from Vietnam, young Walt and Henry take jobs on Alaska’s North Slope and face both a dangerous polar bear and co-workers searching for valuable hidden treasure.

These works are best labeled as companion novellas and stories rather than being inserted into the twenty-two-book numbering.

Wait for Signs and Have Courage collect the shorter side of Longmire

1. Wait for Signs: Twelve Longmire Stories (2014): Twelve shorter Walt Longmire stories bring together Christmas pieces and other compact cases that highlight the humor and community surrounding Absaroka County.
2. Have Courage (scheduled November 3, 2026): Fifteen holiday-inspired Longmire stories include missing dogs, hostage situations, nativity-scene mysteries, unusual local suspects, and other smaller crises handled by Walt and his deputies.

Have Courage is forthcoming as of September 10, 2026. It is a story collection, not Longmire novel twenty-three.

The chronological Longmire order starts much earlier than The Cold Dish

Readers who already know the series may enjoy rebuilding Walt’s life by timeline. Several newer books and novellas deliberately revisit periods long before he became the experienced sheriff seen in The Cold Dish.

1. First Frost, 1964 sections: Walt and Henry have just finished college and are preparing to enter military service.
2. Another Man’s Moccasins, Vietnam sections: Walt’s wartime experiences become directly relevant to a modern murder.
3. Tooth and Claw: Walt and Henry work in Alaska shortly after returning from Vietnam.
4. The Western Star, historical sections: A younger Walt participates in a 1972 train journey involving Wyoming sheriffs and an old murder.
5. Spirit of Steamboat: Walt remembers Christmas Eve 1988 during his first year as sheriff.
6. The Cold Dish onward: Continue the principal present-day series in publication order.

This is useful for a reread, not the recommended first experience. Johnson uses flashbacks and prequels to reinterpret a Walt readers already know.

First Frost should stay at book twenty on a first read

The 1964 material may be some of the earliest Walt Longmire fiction chronologically, but half of the novel occurs in the present after The Longmire Defense.

Moving First Frost to the beginning would therefore expose readers to later consequences and relationships long before the novels that created them. Publication position avoids that problem.

Tooth and Claw is a true young-Walt prequel

Tooth and Claw is easier to position chronologically because its entire adventure follows younger Walt and Henry after Vietnam.

The two friends travel to Alaska looking for work and take jobs with an oil company. A hostile polar bear appears to be the immediate threat, but treasure and human greed eventually prove just as dangerous.

Even so, publication order remains better because readers encounter this young version of Walt after twenty novels have already established the man he becomes.

How the Longmire novels change over time

The earliest books are largely county-level mysteries involving murder, family history, local grudges, and Walt’s gradual recovery from grief after the death of his wife Martha.

Later novels travel farther. Walt works in Philadelphia, South Dakota, Mexico, Montana, Alaska through flashback, and the Red Desert, while old cases increasingly connect with his own family and military past.

The spiritual ambiguity also becomes more prominent in books such as Hell Is Empty, Daughter of the Morning Star, and Hell and Back. Johnson usually leaves readers room to decide how literally to interpret Walt’s experiences.

The television series is a separate continuity

The television adaptation uses Walt Longmire, Henry Standing Bear, Vic Moretti, Cady, Branch Connally, and the Wyoming setting, but it does not reproduce the books case by case.

Character relationships, deaths, investigations, and long-term storylines diverge substantially. Readers do not need to watch the television series before the novels, and viewers should not assume that television events predict what happens in the books.

The next full Longmire novel is already scheduled

A Soft White Damn is scheduled for May 25, 2027 as Longmire novel twenty-three. Publisher information describes it as following the events of The Brothers McKay.

Because it is still forthcoming as of September 2026, the released novel count remains twenty-two.

Craig Johnson’s current release picture

• Newest released novel: The Brothers McKay, May 26, 2026.
• Next book publication: Have Courage, a Longmire story collection, scheduled for November 3, 2026.
• Next main novel: A Soft White Damn, scheduled for May 25, 2027.

Longmire questions readers commonly run into

What is the first Walt Longmire book?

The Cold Dish is the first novel and the best starting point.

How many main Longmire novels are published?

Twenty-two novels have been released through The Brothers McKay.

What is Longmire book twenty-three?

A Soft White Damn is scheduled as book twenty-three for May 2027.

Is Have Courage book twenty-three?

No. Have Courage is a collection of Longmire short stories scheduled for November 2026.

Should Tooth and Claw be read before The Cold Dish?

Not for a first read. It takes place earlier in Walt’s life but was published in 2024 as a retrospective adventure.

Where does Spirit of Steamboat fit?

It was published after A Serpent’s Tooth and recounts a Christmas Eve incident from Walt’s first year as sheriff. It is optional but adds valuable Walt and Lucian Connally history.

What is Craig Johnson’s newest novel?

The Brothers McKay, published in May 2026, is his newest full-length novel as of this update.

A publication-order route with the important extras included

1. The Cold Dish through Hell Is Empty: Read novels one through seven without interruption.
2. Divorce Horse: Add the optional 2012 short work.
3. As the Crow Flies: Return to the main novels.
4. A Serpent’s Tooth: Continue to novel nine.
5. Spirit of Steamboat: Add the 1988 Christmas flashback.
6. Any Other Name and Dry Bones: Continue the novels.
7. The Highwayman: Add the optional novella.
8. An Obvious Fact through The Longmire Defense: Continue novels twelve through nineteen.
9. First Frost: Read the dual 1964 and present-day novel in its publication position.
10. Tooth and Claw: Add the young Walt and Henry Alaska prequel.
11. Return to Sender: Follow Walt into the Red Desert.
12. The Brothers McKay: Reach the current end of the published novel sequence.
13. Have Courage: Add the 2026 story collection after its November release.
14. A Soft White Damn: Continue with novel twenty-three after its scheduled May 2027 publication.

Why publication order remains the safest answer

Craig Johnson increasingly uses Walt’s past to illuminate his present. That makes chronological rearrangement tempting, but books such as The Western Star, The Longmire Defense, and First Frost deliberately move between periods because the contrast itself matters.

Begin with The Cold Dish and let Walt’s history emerge as Johnson reveals it. Add the novellas when they appear if you want the complete experience, but keep them outside the main numbering. That route preserves the changing relationships, avoids later spoilers, and reaches The Brothers McKay with the full history of Absaroka County behind it.