Longarm #287: Longarm and the Blackmailers

Longarm gets an assignment to find to go find Peter Braddock ,an agent of the U.S. Customs Service ,working out of the Larado office,who is suspected of taking payoffs from smugglers along the Mexican border. Braddock is thought to have run off and is suspected of being holed up around Lajitas,across the border ,about 50 miles south of Alpine ,Texas,in Lajitas. The story finds our hero in Mexico ,where he doesn't have any jurisdiction,which is a situation he has faced before. To make matters worse,he is ambushed,lassoed no less,and thrown from a cliff into the raging Rio Grand.The ambusher,Braddock himself,has stripped Long of everything,including his badge and weapons and without much hope of survival. But our hero is not one to be underestimated,is found almost dead,and brought to a Mexican Ranch. He gets involved in a local range way which becomes very dangerous and complicated. The story if filled with lots of characters and action ;which results in a yarn that qualifies it as a great episode in this great long-running series. Though published in October 2002,it reads as well as if just published.That is one of the things about this series;the publication date is irrevalent.

This entry in the long-running series finds Deputy Marshal Custis Long chasing a crooked customs inspector south of the border into Mexico, where he promptly gets involved with warring ranchers, a pair of dormant -- or are they? -- volcanoes, and the usual beautiful but dangerous women. There's even a mention of Jessie Starbuck from the late, lamented Lone Star series, demonstrating that this particular author working behind the Evans pseudonym really knows the history of the character. A fine job all around.