First Frost (Walt Longmire, #20)

by Craig Johnson

He stared out at the ridge that led to the mountains. “I was a linguist and a teacher in my youth, but it took a very long time for me to understand the power of words—designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable.” “George Orwell.”

“You are too young to understand, but we the living have no responsibilities to the dead, our accountabilities to them have passed and they no longer have any more use for us than we have for them—our duties are to the living, and that should occupy us enough.”