Longarm 069: Painted Desert

There is always something different cropping up in a Longarm novel.This one, Number 69,is an oldie,Sept,1984.I have read all the series up to this date ,plus several others from over the years .The series is still continuing and I believe it is up to 313 with the latest novel for December 2004;plus about 15 Giant double sized issued ,about one per year. This one No.69 is a typical yarn about an inside job of robbing the Army's money and Longarm solving the case.It is pretty lackluster but has a bit of a twist at the end. However;there was one very unusual feature with this tale.Typically,Longarm shoots 7 or 8 owlhoots in confrontations in a story;but in this one he takes out only one and not until page 147.Is Longarm changing,or do we have a new writer on staff with an "agenda" of cleaning up his image?Don't tell me we'we hired a Socialology major/turned writer, who thinks Longarm needs counselling or god forbid,sensitivity training.Only kidding!