It wouldn’t be Christmas for me without Spirit of Steamboat by Craig Johnson. I’ve been reminding readers about this book for several holidays. Except for several readings I do privately on Christmas Eve, this is the novella that touches my heart.

Spirit of Steamboat is my favorite of Craig Johnson’s books. When I go back and reread it, I cry over it again. It’s a World War II veteran, a concentration camp survivor, a Vietnam veteran, and a courageous young woman giving up their Christmas Eve, and possibly their lives, to try to save a young accident victim. It’s Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and it’s a tearjerker.

Sheriff Walt Longmire is in his office rereading A Christmas Carol when he’s interrupted by a young woman looking for the sheriff of Absaroka County. Although Walt’s the sheriff, she’s looking for his former boss, Lucian Connolly, who is now retired to the Durant Home for Assisted Living. Neither Lucian nor Walt recognize her, but she has a reminder for them, “Steamboat”.

That one word takes Walt back to another Christmas Eve, in 1988, when he was a newly elected sheriff, waiting for a Flight for Life chopper bringing in the only survivor of a fiery car accident. But, it was also the night of the worst storm of the century, and the only chance the little girl had was if she could get to Children’s Hospital in Denver. Roads are closed, the helicopter EMT and pilot refuse to go farther. Walt only has one crazy idea. He knows a crazy pilot who was one of Doolittle’s Raiders, and flew a Mitchell B-25 in the war. Only Lucian Connolly might be nuts enough to try to get to Denver in a rickety old plane.

When Walt reads A Christmas Carol, or when he remembers that night, one phrase from Dickens sticks out. “…no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused.” The people on that plane on Christmas Eve, 1988 did not miss life’s opportunity. However, I won’t spoil the story of a small group of warriors, or the warrior that was a horse named Steamboat, or the mysticism that arises in a Walt Longmire story when there’s the sound of drums. If you haven’t ever read Spirit of Steamboat, you might just want to pick up this small book for Christmas.

Craig Johnson’s website is www.craigallenjohnson.com

Spirit of Steamboat by Craig Johnson. Viking, 2013. ISBN 9780670015788 (hardcover), 146p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I bought my copy of the book years ago.