This is one of the most unusual episodes I've come across in this long running series,for several reasons.First of all,I'm sure the author of this episode in new to me,as I can't recall any other one with near as much flowery,descriptive language.It runs through the whole story ;let me give you an example. Here's how he describes Marshal Vail's clerk ,Henry,when Longarm entered the office.
"Marshall Billy Vail's edgy,bespeckled chief clerk jumped as though shot when Longarm slammed his way into their boss's outer office.Startled and surprised by the deputy's bearish,abrupt entrance,the owl-eyed Henry hopped away from a job at his newfangled typewriting apparatus.He came nigh on to standing at attention,coughed,and with a visible display of teeth-gritting irritation waved his private kingdom's most recent invader toward the open door of the U.S. marshal's inner sanctum.Grumbled indecipherable epitahs issued from the fussy gent's twisted mouth as he flounced into his seat and went back to hunting-and pecking at the ivory-colored keys of the clattering iron machine perched atop his desk like a hungry black buzzard."
I nearly fell over with this,and wondered what we were in store for when our hero becomes involved in his enevitable shootout,fight to the finish with some desperado or encounter with some wild beauty of the West,as he is sure to do.
The character that Marshal Vail sends Longarm to hunt down is ,to say the leasst,one of the most unbelievable owlhoots Longarm has ever encountered and the descriptions by the writer,are something to behold.
It's a great yarn,filled with all kinds of suspense and excitement.
I have no idea what other things this author has done ;but this is an excellent,though very different approach for this series.
