Longarm in Devils River

Longarm chases Dolphus Lasher all the way to Devil's River in south Texas,not far from Uvalde.Longarm was sent to bring him back to Denver to stand trial for the murder of a federal judge. Most of this yarn plays out in a tiny town where Lasher,his father ,brother,sister and a couple of other unsavory characters are holed up.Longarm easily captures Lasher and even has him in jail;but the rest of them have different ideas about Longarm taking him to Denver for trial. The writing in this episode is unusually colorful and descriptive for this series.The writer is particularly good at developing great characters in keeping with the Old West gendre. There is lots of action,and of all the type of things we look for in this series.A good local Marshal Quincy Bates,his deputy Hamp Bodine with a peg leg,Dolphus's sister Ardella,brother Obie and father Kermit;along with the Clinch brothers Honas and Boggs,the magnificent lady blacksmith Bell Harvey,a one of a kind old friend of Marshal Bates,Mad Dog Callahan and his dog Brute;make this episode one of the best of the series for colorful and interesting characters.The writing is excellent,loaded with Old West expressions,one-liners and palaver. If that isn't enough to keep yo turning the pages;wait till you find out about a bunch of rattlesnakes,not the human types ,but the real McCoy. Even though this is an excellent episode;the cover artwork is just a collage of "stuff" from the archives,having nothing to do with the story or characters.When are we going to see the publishers put a decent effort into the covers of this great series? The fans deserve better!!!