Longarm and the Ungrateful Gun

Like I've said in some of my other reviews,there's no telling what a Longarm series episode is going to be like. This one is about the weirdest written story I've come across yet. I got the impression that they had a bunch of material that had been rounded up,then appointed a committee of aout 6 to somehow churn out an episode from it all. The story line is simple enough,where Longarm goes to pick up a prisoner and return him to Denver. The prisoner escapes and the rest of the novel chases after him and ends with his demise. The story drifts all over the place explaining how many things in the Old West worked. Actually, these bits of scattered history and explanations were good reading and informative. I wish I'd kept track of all the people and events that are brought into the story, as I am sure there were a bundle.There had to be about 40 or 50 names mentioned.This along with at least 25 characters Longarm meets and deals with in the story. Explanations run rampant throughout the book covering numerous things such as; retirement,King Ranch,guns sorbet,horse apples,dry dusters,Arbunkle coffee,Land Managment Office,all kinds of explanations on names such as Singer Wells,Tweety Bird,Rom the Tinker,times for various modes of travel,a bit of poetry,bartering on buying a horse,a Yellowboy,refrigeration and ice making;and much,much more. There are a string of characters and a bevy of beauties developed and scattered throughout the story.Too bad we don't get illustrations,as they seemed very interesting. Oh yeah,what about the story and catching up with the ecaped prisoner.This is where the "6 person committee" came into play. After most of the book was taken up with all this other stuff,they decided to wrap the story up in the end with a convoluted explanation similar to a mystery "who dunnit" Just goes to show you what you get when you gather up a bunch of stuff, then turn it over to a committee and have it churn out a book.I don't know if that was really the case;but that is the impression I was left with.