Blue-Eyed Tough Guys

Actor Robert Taylor portrayed fictional Absaroka County, Wyoming Sheriff Walt Longmire for six seasons. Image: Netflix

Little is known of blue-eyed author Craig Johnson’s career path prior to publishing his first novel, The Cold Dish, at age 43 in 2004. Johnson appears to have stayed on the right side of Johnny Law, and at some point was inspired to develop the characters which appeared in the book. He certainly has a vivid imagination and a penchant for writing about trials and tribulations of people on and off the Indian reservations around the greater Wyoming area. 

The main protagonist, Sheriff Walt Longmire, is more like Robert B. Parker’s detective Spenser, a flawed but earnest man with book and street smarts who can throw a punch when necessary. The Longmire series is based in fictional Absaroka County in northern Wyoming. 

“The guys who are 6 feet 2 inches of twisted steel and sex appeal —– every woman wants him, every man fears him —– that’s not him,” Johnson told the New York Times in 2009. “Walt is the sadder-but-wiser sheriff. My favorite musketeer was Athos, the heartbroken one.”