From Publishers Weekly
Three-time Edgar winner DeAndrea is no tenderfoot. The creator of both the Matt Cobb and Niccolo Benedetti books kicks off another series, starring legendary former federal marshal Lobo Blacke and Quinn Booker, his friend and biographer, set in late-19th century Wyoming. Blacke, a marshal no longer thanks to a crippling bullet in the back, has just bought a newspaper and summoned the narrating Booker to the boomtown of Le Four, Wyo. Booker steps off the train and into a brawl with drunken cowboys, who are amazed when the easterner whips them all in a scene captured by pioneering photographer "Professor Ned" Bessemer. The thugs, it turns out, work for Lucius Jenkins, the town's richest man, whom Blacke suspects of being the snake who shot him in the back. When Professor Ned is shot to death, Booker believes that something about his photographs provoked the murder. The search for clues involves Lucius's luscious daughter Abigail, a visiting English baronet, the worst sheriff money can buy and Blacke's hilarious but effective gunfighting technique for novices. Despite a somewhat telegraphed solution, DeAndrea spins a fast-moving gambol with vivid characters. It all adds up to a welcome new series.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Quinn Booker made his mark as the biographer of legendary lawman Lewis "Lobo" Blacke. About a year after their collaboration, Booker receives a telegram from Blacke requesting his immediate presence in Wyoming, where the wheelchair-bound Blacke is running a small newspaper. Booker's task is twofold: to write for the paper and to assist Blacke as he searches for the coward who shot him in the back and left him with two useless legs. Booker is to Blacke what Archie Goodwin is to Nero Wolfe--the admiring protege/biographer--but whereas Goodwin maintains his portly benefactor's previously accumulated wealth, Booker was the source of Blacke's bankroll, putting them on more equal footing. And while Wolfe's eccentricities are studied and often self-serving, Blacke is simply a tough ex-lawman who finds himself in a wheelchair. Frankly, he's a lot more likable than the stout one. Three-time Edgar winner DeAndrea has what's destined to be a very popular series on his hands with this clever melding of mystery and western genres. Don't miss it.
Wes Lukowsky
