Longarm #361 Devils River [Mass Market Paperback]

After three rough days of riding Federal Deputy Marshal Custis Long has tracked a killer by the name of Dolphus Lasher to the town of Devils River. However, as it turns out, the situation gets a lot more complicated because Lasher's father, brother and sister intend to do whatever they can to keep Dolphus out of jail and away from the hangman's noose.

The story flows evenly and the dialogue is pure western, which is both its strong and weak point. In some previous Longarm novels there was not enough of western dialogue but in this one, it seemed that every other statement was followed by some folksy colorful western dialogue description. It was a bit much and I am sure the group of writers who all go under the pen name of Tabor Evans, can get together to make these western novels more consistent.

In conclusion, like all of the Longarm series, there is plenty of action to make the story interesting. There is the right balance of fights, shoot outs and of course, lusty love making in this western tale.

Rating: 4 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Monadnock Defensive Tactics System-MDTS)

Longarm chases Dolphus Lasher all the way to Devil's River in south Texas,not far from Uvalde.Longarm was sent to bring him back to Denver to stand trial for the murder of a federal judge.
Most of this yarn plays out in a tiny town where Lasher,his father ,brother,sister and a couple of other unsavory characters are holed up.Longarm easily captures Lasher and even has him in jail;but the rest of them have different ideas about Longarm taking him to Denver for trial.
The writing in this episode is unusually colorful and descriptive for this series.The writer is particularly good at developing great characters in keeping with the Old West gendre. There is lots of action,and of all the type of things we look for in this series.A good local Marshal Quincy Bates,his deputy Hamp Bodine with a peg leg,Dolphus's sister Ardella,brother Obie and father Kermit;along with the Clinch brothers Honas and Boggs,the magnificent lady blacksmith Bell Harvey,a one of a kind old friend of Marshal Bates,Mad Dog Callahan and his dog Brute;make this episode one of the best of the series for colorful and interesting characters.The writing is excellent,loaded with Old West expressions,one-liners and palaver.
If that isn't enough to keep yo turning the pages;wait till you find out about a bunch of rattlesnakes,not the human types ,but the real McCoy.
Even though this is an excellent episode;the cover artwork is just a collage of "stuff" from the archives,having nothing to do with the story or characters.When are we going to see the publishers put a decent effort into the covers of this great series? The fans deserve better!!!