Best Craig Johnson Audiobooks
Craig Johnson writes Westerns disguised as mysteries — and the disguise is so good most readers don't notice until they're already hooked. His Walt Longmire series, set in the windswept high plains of Wyoming, follows an aging sheriff whose cases are inseparable from the landscape around him: brutal, beautiful, and unforgiving. Johnson's prose has the unhurried confidence of someone who knows exactly where he's going — dry wit, genuine warmth, and an ear for dialogue that makes every scene feel lived-in. The Cold Dish announced a fully-formed voice from the start, and Hell Is Empty pushed the series into something mythic without losing its boots-on-the-ground authenticity. Readers who love a strong sense of place, characters who earn your loyalty slowly, and mysteries with real moral weight will find Johnson essential. George Guidall's narration on audio is among the best author-narrator pairings in the genre.
Where to Start with Craig Johnson
- Best entry point → The Cold Dish
- Start the Walt Longmire #0.5 series → Tooth and Claw
- Short listen, big payoff → The Longmire Defense
- Underrated but highly rated → The Western Star
- What fans keep coming back to → Death Without Company
- Highest rated by listeners → As The Crow Flies (Walt Longmire #8)
Best Craig Johnson Audiobooks
- 1
The Longmire Defense
Walt Longmire • Book 19
Narrated by George Guidall
★ 4.68 ABR Score (12.8K ratings)★ 4.54 Goodreads (11.0K) ★ 4.8 Audible (1.8K)More about this pick
Fresh from confronting his past and questioning justice itself, Walt faces an unprecedented crime scene in Wyoming's countryside that challenges everything he believes about law enforcement.
- 2
As The Crow Flies
Walt Longmire • Book 8
Narrated by George Guidall
★ 4.59 ABR Score (26.2K ratings)★ 4.29 Goodreads (19.1K) ★ 4.71 Audible (7.1K)More about this pick
Sheriff Walt Longmire faces his toughest case while planning his daughter's wedding, with George Guidall capturing both the family stress and mounting danger perfectly.
- 3
Junkyard Dogs
Walt Longmire • Book 6
Narrated by George Guidall
★ 4.57 ABR Score (28.1K ratings)★ 4.26 Goodreads (21.0K) ★ 4.7 Audible (7.1K)More about this pick
A severed thumb in a junkyard sparks warfare between developers and scrapyard owners in Durant, Wyoming. Guidall's weathered voice perfectly embodies Sheriff Longmire's dry wit.
- 4
The Western Star
Walt Longmire • Book 13
Narrated by George Guidall
★ 4.56 ABR Score (18.0K ratings)★ 4.27 Goodreads (12.2K) ★ 4.71 Audible (5.8K)More about this pick
Sheriff Longmire confronts a photograph of twenty-five lawmen from his past, triggering memories of a deadly train journey decades earlier. George Guidall's weathered delivery perfectly matches Walt's reflective mood.
- 5
Hell Is Empty
Walt Longmire • Book 7
Narrated by George Guidall
★ 4.55 ABR Score (25.4K ratings)★ 4.29 Goodreads (18.4K) ★ 4.67 Audible (7.0K)More about this pick
Sheriff Walt Longmire pursues escaped killers through a Wyoming blizzard in this intense survival thriller that George Guidall narrates with weathered gravitas.
- 6
The Dark Horse
Walt Longmire • Book 5
Narrated by George Guidall
★ 4.54 ABR Score (28.7K ratings)★ 4.3 Goodreads (21.6K) ★ 4.65 Audible (7.1K)More about this pick
Sheriff Walt Longmire goes undercover to investigate a woman who allegedly shot her horse-burning husband six times in the head. George Guidall captures Longmire's dry wit and the dusty desperation of rural Wyoming perfectly.
- 7
Kindness Goes Unpunished
Walt Longmire • Book 3
Narrated by George Guidall
★ 4.54 ABR Score (33.4K ratings)★ 4.22 Goodreads (24.5K) ★ 4.67 Audible (8.9K)More about this pick
Sheriff Longmire leaves Wyoming for Philadelphia when his daughter is brutally attacked and left for dead. Guidall's warm, paternal tone perfectly matches Walt's protective fury and fish-out-of-water urban investigation.
- 8
Dry Bones
Walt Longmire • Book 11
Narrated by George Guidall
★ 4.54 ABR Score (21.4K ratings)★ 4.24 Goodreads (14.5K) ★ 4.69 Audible (6.9K)More about this pick
Walt Longmire's investigation of a dead rancher becomes complicated when a T. rex skeleton enters the picture. Guidall's familiar cadence anchors this unusual mystery that blends paleontology with classic Wyoming crime solving.
- 9
A Serpent's Tooth
Walt Longmire • Book 9
Narrated by George Guidall
★ 4.54 ABR Score (24.4K ratings)★ 4.3 Goodreads (17.1K) ★ 4.65 Audible (7.2K)More about this pick
Walt Longmire investigates a highway shooting involving a polygamist compound while navigating family secrets and federal complications in Wyoming's high country.
- 10
Another Man's Moccasins
Walt Longmire • Book 4
Narrated by George Guidall
★ 4.53 ABR Score (31.0K ratings)★ 4.25 Goodreads (22.6K) ★ 4.65 Audible (8.4K)More about this pick
A Vietnamese woman's murder alongside a Wyoming interstate forces Sheriff Longmire to confront his first homicide case as a Marine in Vietnam forty years earlier. George Guidall's weathered voice perfectly matches Longmire's reflective investigation style.
- 11
Any Other Name
Walt Longmire • Book 10
Narrated by George Guidall
★ 4.53 ABR Score (20.9K ratings)★ 4.25 Goodreads (14.9K) ★ 4.68 Audible (6.0K)More about this pick
Sheriff Walt Longmire investigates a fellow lawman's suspicious death in this Wyoming-set mystery that balances small-town politics with serious crime. Guidall's weathered delivery suits Longmire perfectly.
- 12
Death Without Company
Walt Longmire • Book 2
Narrated by George Guidall
★ 4.52 ABR Score (38.9K ratings)★ 4.22 Goodreads (28.3K) ★ 4.64 Audible (10.6K)More about this pick
George Guidall's weathered voice perfectly matches Wyoming sheriff Walt Longmire investigating a suspicious poisoning death in this character-driven mystery.
- 13
An Obvious Fact
Walt Longmire • Book 12
Narrated by George Guidall
★ 4.52 ABR Score (20.6K ratings)★ 4.26 Goodreads (14.6K) ★ 4.67 Audible (6.0K)More about this pick
Sheriff Walt Longmire investigates a suspicious motorcycle accident during the massive Sturgis rally. Guidall's weathered voice perfectly embodies Wyoming's laconic lawman navigating biker culture and small-town politics.
- 14
The Cold Dish
Walt Longmire • Book 1
Narrated by George Guidall
★ 4.41 ABR Score (64.3K ratings)★ 4.11 Goodreads (46.6K) ★ 4.54 Audible (17.7K)More about this pick
When Cody Pritchard turns up dead two years after his rape conviction, Sheriff Walt Longmire suspects vigilante justice in Wyoming's Absaroka County. George Guidall's weathered voice perfectly embodies the laconic lawman.
- 15
First Frost
Walt Longmire • Book 20
Narrated by George Guidall
★ 4.40 ABR Score (10.3K ratings)★ 4.31 Goodreads (8.8K) ★ 4.62 Audible (1.5K)More about this pick
George Guidall transports listeners to 1964 as young Walt Longmire and Henry Standing Bear face their last summer before Vietnam.
- 16
Return to Sender
Walt Longmire • Book 21
Narrated by George Guidall
★ 4.25 ABR Score (8.2K ratings)★ 4.22 Goodreads (7.2K) ★ 4.54 Audible (1.0K)More about this pick
George Guidall returns as Walt Longmire searches Wyoming's brutal Red Desert for Blair McGowan, the mail carrier with the country's longest postal route.
- 17
Tooth and Claw
Walt Longmire #0.5
Narrated by George Guidall
★ 4.24 ABR Score (7.3K ratings)★ 4.21 Goodreads (6.0K) ★ 4.54 Audible (1.2K)More about this pick
Young Walt Longmire and Henry Standing Bear seek work in post-Vietnam Alaska, only to face dangerous enemies while laboring for an oil company. Guidall's narration captures both the harsh landscape and the friendship that will define the series.
- 18
Depth of Winter
Walt Longmire • Book 14
Narrated by George Guidall
★ 4.24 ABR Score (17.4K ratings)★ 4.04 Goodreads (12.6K) ★ 4.5 Audible (4.9K)More about this pick
Mexican cartel leader kidnaps Sheriff Walt Longmire's daughter Cady, planning to auction her to his enemies. George Guidall's weathered voice matches perfectly with Longmire's desperate cross-border pursuit through cartel territory.
- 19
Hell and Back
Walt Longmire • Book 18
Narrated by George Guidall
★ 4.14 ABR Score (13.2K ratings)★ 3.96 Goodreads (10.1K) ★ 4.46 Audible (3.1K)More about this pick
Sheriff Longmire wakes up bloody in the ghost town of Fort Pratt, surrounded by the spirits of thirty Native boys who died in an 1896 boarding school fire. George Guidall handles the supernatural Western elements expertly.
- 20
The Brothers McKay
Walt Longmire • Book 22
Narrated by George Guidall
★ 3.52 ABR Score (14 ratings)★ 4.5 Goodreads (14)More about this pick
Sheriff Walt Longmire returns in another Wyoming mystery following the events of Return to Sender, continuing the beloved series that has defined modern Western crime fiction.