Sunday, March 06, 2005

Short and Sweet #2

Longarm by Tabor Evans.

Custis Long is defined by his surname. Not only is his name Long, but so is his height and his, ahem, size. As a United States Marshall he is literally the Long Arm of the Law.

Longarm never wastes a step, breath or word. He doesn't waste time worrying or complaining about what he can't control. He's given a job and he does it.

When reviewing The Executioner books I originally planned on keeping a running tab of kills, but circumstances in the first book made that impossible. For Longarm's series I was going to tabulate his women, but circumstances in the first book kept that from happening. You'll just have to find a copy yourself to see what I'm talking about.

In this first book Longarm is sent to Crooked Lance to bring back Cotton Younger, suspected of knowing the whereabouts of Frank and Jesse James. He's hampered by other lawmen staking their claim to him and the town's vigilante committee holding out for the top bidder.

When another lawman succeeds in sneaking off with the prisoner it appears that Longarm's assignment is done, but here's a bit of a spoiler: Custis Long never quits until an assignment is complete.

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