Sheriff Walt Longmire faces an icy hell in this New York Times bestseller from Craig Johnson The hit drama Longmire is now streaming on Paramount+ Well-read and world-weary, Sheriff Walt Longmire has been maintaining order in Wyoming's Absaroka County for more than thirty years, but in this riveting seventh outing, he is pushed to his limits. Raynaud Shade, an adopted Crow Indian rumored to be one of the country's most dangerous sociopaths, has just confessed to murdering a boy ten years ago and burying him deep within the Bighorn Mountains. Walt is asked to transport Shade through a blizzard to the site, but what begins as a typical criminal transport turns personal when the veteran lawman learns that he knows the dead boy's family. Guided only by Indian mysticism and a battered paperback of Dante's Inferno , Walt braves the icy hell of the Cloud Peak Wilderness Area, cheating death to ensure that justice—both civil and spiritual—is served. “With Hell is Empty , Craig Johnson delivers an action-packed Western thriller, rife with evocative setting and literary allusion.” — The Boston Globe “Good stories that take place in the West are in short supply these days, and Johnson’s latest is the real deal with literary clout.” — The Denver Post “Truly great. Reading Craig Johnson is a treat.” — Wyoming Tribune Eagle Praise for Craig Johnson and the Walt Longmire Mystery Series “It's the scenery—and the big guy standing in front of the scenery—that keeps us coming back to Craig Johnson's lean and leathery mysteries.” — The New York Times Book Review “Johnson's hero only gets better—both at solving cases and at hooking readers—with age.” — Publishers Weekly “Like the greatest crime novelists, Johnson is a student of human nature. Walt Longmire is strong but fallible, a man whose devil-may-care stoicism masks a heightened sensitivity to the horrors he's witnessed.” — Los Angeles Times “Johnson's trademarks [are] great characters, witty banter, serious sleuthing, and a love of Wyoming bigger than a stack of derelict cars.” — The Boston Globe “The characters talk straight from the hip and the Wyoming landscape is its own kind of eloquence.” — The New York Times “[Walt Longmire] is an easy man to like. . . . Johnson evokes the rugged landscape with reverential prose, lending a heady atmosphere to his story.” — The Philadelphia Inquirer “Stepping into Walt's world is like slipping on a favorite pair of slippers, and it's where those slippers lead that provides a thrill. Johnson pens a series that should become a 'must' read, so curl up, get comfortable, and enjoy the ride.” — The Denver Post “Johnson's pacing is tight and his dialogue snaps.” — Entertainment Weekly Craig Johnson is the New York Times bestselling author of the Longmire mysteries, the basis for the hit drama series Longmire . He is the recipient of the Western Writers of America Spur Award for fiction, the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award for fiction, the Nouvel Observateur Prix du Roman Noir, and the Prix SNCF du Polar. His novella Spirit of Steamboat was the first One Book Wyoming selection. He lives in Ucross, Wyoming, population twenty-six. Table of Contents Praise for Hell Is Empty About the Author Also by Craig Johnson Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Acknowledgments   Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Epilogue Appendix   Excerpt from As The Crow Flies For Joe Drabyak (1950–2010), who has died so many literary deaths and continues to live on in so many well-read hearts.       Hell is empty And all the devils are here.   —William Shakespeare, The Tempest , act I, scene 2     Ch’i’ non averei creduto che morte tanta n’avesse disfatta. I should not have thought that death could ever have unmade so many.   —Dante Alighieri, Inferno , canto 3, lines 56–57 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Hell Is Empty could be the most challenging novel I’ve attempted so far and, like Dante, I would’ve found it difficult to make such an effort without my own guides into the nether regions. In my part of the country, the one thing you don’t do is argue with your Indian scouts. When I first signed with my agent, Gail Hochman, I didn’t know what trustworthy hands I was placing myself in, but over the years it has become quite evident. The first person she delivered me to in the wilderness of the publishing world was Kathryn Court, my editor extraordinaire and president of Penguin USA. Second in command of my books, and the person to whom I must bid a fond farewell, is Alexis Washam, who has since moved on, but was a guiding hand in the writing of this book as well. In the many rings of publishing, you hope for a head of publicity like Maureen Donnelly, a senior publicist such as Ben Petrone, a publicist like Gabrielle Gantz, and, of course, we all hope for an all-pur