Longarm and the Apache War

Just another great western by Tabor Evans with his main protagonist Marshal Custis Long, # 330 in the Longarm series. As always, I enjoyed the adventure, shoot-'em-up, and beautiful ladies. The novel starts off with Longarm rightfully blasting a wife-beater on the train to Flagstaff, and not having a funeral parlor close-by or funds for a burial and service, he throws the miscreant off onto the railroad track with the corpse probably becoming wolf-food within hours. Of course, he ends up making love to the damsel in distress - something to do with eye contact and the rhymatic motion of the rails. It is more than a story of good vs. evil, available females, and water rights, and a passel of new characters, including Apaches. You have to read it yourself - it well worth the few bucks and your time. I liked it!

Any longtime reader of this series is going find this saga quite different. Longarm gets a very clear assignment from his boss but has a lot of trouble getting to the problem with all the diversions that keep cropping up along the way. It would be easy to ignore the injustices that confront him; but that's just not Longarm's way. Several times Longarm has to reach into his own lean pockets to help someone in need .It almost seems that he is playing the role of government in assistance 50 years before FDR came up with the New Deal.Too bad they didn't staff the departments with people like Longarm;a lot more would have been done,a lot faster ,and for a heck of a lot less money. In this saga,we meet some great characters.Gassy,but keep your distance,Geronimo,John Stanton,Old West artist,writer and mayor( I tried,but to no avail to find out if he was a real person). Anyone out there know? We get a bit of everything in this one.Rescue of a wonderful wife from a husband who doesn't deserve her,a train ride which turns out to be both enjoyable as well as a lesson on how not to depart from it.A short course in what a well executed scalping should look like,what it feels like to hear someone digging your grave,and even Longarm doing some gravedigging himself. We see how Longarm goes out of his way to help others and in return gets repaid well by those he helped. If you've ever wondered what "Waterboarding"is like;Longarm shows his type,and there was no ACLU waiting to aid the guilty. A great read,just too bad it ended so soon. Oh yeah! The Apache War in the title?..You'll just have to read the book to find out about that. "He damn well better consent to see me", Longarm thought. "Sometimes it is better to sleep with the enemy to know his strenghts and weaknesses." Donita "How bad are you hit this time?,Longarm asked. "Not bad Marshal.Not so bad that I won't live to spit on both of their graves!",Gassy said.