He carries a pack and wears hiking boots instead of ropers but I think I have found a European Longmire.

Alex Hugo, The Mountain Detective, speaks French and lives in the Alps but he’s an unshaven single man in jeans and rumpled shirts with same good nature as as Walt Longmire of the Valles Caldera and Las Vegas, New Mexico, or as TV would have you believe, Absaroka County, Wyoming.

Like Longmire, Mountain Detective plots have social themes but the chases usually are on foot, often involve rappelling (actually, I recall one Longmire episode where Walt rappels) and Alex typically goes unarmed. His stocking cap is more likely headgear than the custom-made O’Farrell de Santa Fe it looks like Walt wears, though I notice you can get an O’Farrell made with 25 percent European hare. And, praise the writers, Alex started off driving trucks at least as beat up as Walt’s old Bronco.

No offense Craig Johnson, John Coveny and Hunt Baldwin. I remain a Longmire fan and always hope for more. I was already missing Stoney Burke. (By the way, western movie and TV fans, look at the list of Stoney Burke guest stars). With European Longmire, I just have found something to fill in the gaps. Click here to Sail.

PS: I take back some of my enthusiasm for Mountain Detective after getting farther into the series and seeing this line in the French-to-English subtitles: “When I ask him, he clams up like an oyster.”

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