Craig Johnson talks about JUNKYARD DOGS

Craig Johnson arrived for our interview wearing tall leather boots over his blue jeans and carrying a helmet. A Wyoming rancher riding a motorcycle around the northwest to promote his latest book? Yep. He's kinda like that.

Johnson has received high praise for his Sheriff Walt Longmire novels The Cold Dish, Death Without Company, Kindness Goes Unpunished, Another Man's Moccasins, and The Dark Horse, which received a superfecta of starred reviews from Kirkus, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal, and was named one of Publisher's Weekly's best books of the year (2009). Each has been a Booksense/IndieNext pick with The Cold Dish and The Dark Horse both DILYS award finalists and Death Without Company the Wyoming Historical Association's Book of the Year. Another Man's Moccasins received the Western Writer's of America Spur Award for best novel of 2008 as well as the Mountains and Plains award for fiction book of the year.

Johnson's new book, Junkyard Dogs, is number six in the Walt Longmire mystery series. But he didn't set out to write a series. Find out how it happened by listening to the program online.

Or tune in to Yellowstone Public Radio at 6:30 Thursday evening (August 19) or to Montana Public Radio at 7:30.