I've read and enjoyed most, if not all, of this author’s Walt Longmire novels but must say that "Kindness Goes Unpunished" is my new favorite. I loved almost everything about it, especially the Philadelphia setting (since I grew up there). All of the other Longmire stories are set in Wyoming, where Longmire is the Sheriff of a small town and the stories all have a Western setting and flavor, as do the primary characters. This one, however, has the Sheriff going East to Philadelphia to visit his daughter, Cady, who is a young attorney in the City of Brotherly Love. He is accompanied by his good friend, Henry Standing Bear, who has been asked to deliver a talk on Native American art and customs at the Friends Society.
The Sheriff has barely set foot in Philly when his daughter suffers a vicious attack that almost kills her. The Sheriff then finds himself involved in the local police investigation of the crime, learns that his daughter’s attack was part of a drug-related political cover-up, and uses some of his Wyoming Sheriff methods to help the police solve the multiple crimes that are all part of the fast-paced story. The author’s descriptions of the varied Philadelphia locations are spot-on and accurate. His characterizations are all strongly drawn, especially those of his Italian-American Deputy from back in Wyoming, who was originally from Philly, and her mother, along with several other of her family members, who happen to be on the Philadelphia police force, all of whom he skillfully weaves into the story.
The plot is complex but the book is a page-turner since Johnson keeps the story moving along rapidly. This book and the story it tells accomplished for me what only the very best of the thousands of books I've read in my lifetime (I'm currently 89 and read an average of 100+ books a year) have done; ie, they had me wishing the story hadn't ended and that I'd get to know more about what happened next to the characters in which I had become so invested and interested.