The Cold Dish

The Cold Dish is a 2004 western mystery novel by Craig Johnson. The first of a series featuring Walt Longmire, sheriff of the fictional Absaroka County, Wyoming, the novel explores concepts related to legal and vigilante justice, including within the context of an Indigenous community. The Cold Dish earned Johnson a nomination for the Dilys Award, and the series was later adapted into a 2012 television series called Longmire, which was a critical and popular success. In 2024, Johnson published the 20th book in the Walt Longmire series. The books have developed a strong fanbase, and readers gather for the Longmire Days festival each year in Buffalo, Wyoming, the real-life town that Absaroka County is based on.

This guide is based on the 2023 Penguin Books edition.

Content Warning: This source text and this guide mention death by suicide and sexual assault.

Plot Summary

During the early 2000s, Walt Longmire is the sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming. One day, he receives notice that a young man named Cody Pritchard was found dead in the nearby wilderness. With the help of his undersheriff, Victoria “Vic” Moretti, Walt opens an investigation into Cody’s death.

A few years earlier, Cody was one of four young men convicted of sexually assaulting a young Cheyenne woman named Melissa Little Bird, who was born with fetal alcohol syndrome. Along with many in the Cheyenne community, Walt felt that the sentences given to the young men were too lenient.

Walt also faces challenges in his personal life. His wife, Martha, died four years earlier, and Walt continues to feel melancholy and unmotivated since her passing. With the encouragement of his best friend, Henry Standing Bear, Walt takes steps to improve his health and finish building his home. He also begins dating Vonnie Hayes, a wealthy woman who grew up in the area but left for boarding school following her father’s death by suicide when she was 12. Vonnie has returned to Wyoming to care for her ailing mother.

When Omar Rhoades, a local firearms expert, suggests that Cody was killed by a type of antique buffalo rifle, Walt and Vic work to identify matching gun owners in the area. One of them is Lonnie Little Bird, Melissa’s father. He loans Walt a buffalo rifle known as the Cheyenne Death Rifle. The spirits of the dead supposedly haunt the gun.

A few days after Cody’s death, Jacob Esper, another of the young men convicted of assaulting Melissa, is found dead. A witness describes the shooter as tall with long dark hair. Reluctantly, Walt includes Henry on his list of suspects. He also initiates a search for the other two young men, George Esper and Bryan Keller.

At his office, Walt becomes angry when one of his deputies, Brian “Turk” Connally, beats up a drunk man who urinated on him. Walt attacks and injures Turk but quickly regrets his actions. Later, Turk decides to apply for the highway patrol on the advice of his uncle, Lucian Connally, the former sheriff,

Walt convinces Omar to fly him and Henry in his helicopter to help them search the wilderness for the still-missing George Esper. Omar drops them off near George’s tent but has to leave before they locate him to avoid an oncoming storm. Walt and Henry proceed down the trail until they meet George, who shoots Henry on sight. George is also injured in the struggle that follows. As a blizzard sets in, Walt carries first George and then Henry down the canyon to the parking lot. As he does so, he sees the spirits of the Old Cheyenne guiding and encouraging him.

Walt and Henry are admitted to the hospital, but Walt leaves early the next morning without checking out, eager to resume work on the case. He is surprised to find a box of shells in his car next to the Cheyenne Death Rifle. He visits Lonnie, who admits to placing them there after the spirits of the dead told him Walt would need them.

Despite needing medical attention, George repeatedly evades the police, feeling that they are not strong enough to save him. Eventually, he takes a stolen car and drives across the countryside. Walt, Vic, and Henry pursue him. When George flees on foot after his car gets stuck, a distant figure shoots and injures him, but he survives. As Vic and Henry take George to the hospital, Walt pursues the figure, whom he recognizes as Vonnie.

By the time Walt arrives at Vonnie’s home, she is in the shed where her father died. Vonnie explains that she planned to kill Melissa’s abusers after the justice system failed to punish them sufficiently. Vonnie identifies with Melissa since she was abused by her father at a young age. She professes her love for Walt before dying by suicide.

Following Vonnie’s death, Walt retreats into solitude, but he finally begins to talk with Henry again after a few weeks pass.