Walt Longmire and his bestie, Henry Standing Bear, drive from Durant, Wyoming, to Philadelphia to visit Walt's daughter, Cady. When Walt gets there, however, Cady is too busy to meet him for dinner. Like, really, your dad just drove 2,000 miles to see you and you can't take off work early? ANYway, that night Cady is pushed down a staircase and nearly dies. Naturally, being a cop, Walt starts investigating. With the help of Henry and the Moretti clan (the family of his deputy, Vic), he discovers a web of City Hall corruption and drug dealing connected to his daughter's attacker.
I'll be honest, I wasn't crazy into Kindness Goes Unpunished. Maybe it was the setting or maybe it was the fact that I found the plot nearly incomprehensible, but uhg. Just thinking about the last quarter of the story makes me TIRED. Also, by weird coincidence Kindness Goes Unpunished is the second book this month I read with a coma patient in it. Writing protip: talking to people in a coma isn't that exciting.
So, yeah. It wasn't a DNF but it tested the bounds of believability and patience for me. However, I do have to say that I find the differences between Cady in the Longmire books and Cady in the Longmire TV show interesting. In the books, she's a high-powered, career-focused attorney with her own life. That's obvious even though the story is told from Walt's point of view. In the TV show, she lives in Durant and her life revolves around her dad and "taking care of him" after her mother's death (even though it feels closer to nagging). She had some sort of job before she moved back to Durant, but I'm not clear on what that was exactly. In the second season, she starts working as a waitress at Henry's bar, The Red Pony, so her dad can lecture her about hanging around drunk people.
Now I know in order for Cady to be on the show regularly she has to be in Durant a lot, but I find it interesting that the TV show made her a lot less independent and, well, ADULT than the Cady in the books. At one point on the show, Branch, Walt's most annoying deputy (whom I think is modeled after Turk from The Cold Dish), asks, "It's 10 o'clock. Do you know where your daughter is, Walt?" You mean his 30-year-old daughter who can go anywhere she wants and is capable of taking care of herself, that daughter?
Even Cady's affairs have something to do with Walt: she starts dating Branch in secret because he's running against Walt in the sheriff election and she doesn't want Walt to get upset. EYEROLL 1. Uncomfortable Oedipal associations; 2. I think Walt can deal with who his daughter is dating because he's a grown-ass man and not her high school ex.
Basically what I'm saying is I find Cady to be a nearly intolerable character on the TV show. I was actually dreading her appearance in the books; but in the books she's an independent adult who obviously loves her dad but is living her own life, and she's pretty awesome. Furthermore, Walt is definitely into giving her her own space and not telling her what to do or who to date. Complete one-eighty from the TV show. Needless to say, I prefer the books' version of these two characters and their relationship.
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