Longarm by Lou Cameron

I was surprised, reading the first book in the series that it didn't feel like an introductory book. The character of Deputy U.S. Marshal Custis Long (A.K.A. Longarm) emerges fully formed in the first chapter (or as fully formed as he's likely to get).

So the Longarm books are all about the plot then, rather than being about the growth of Marshal Long. That didn't give me a lot of hope as I admit the plot of the first book just didn't sound as interesting as the second book in the omnibus I read it in.

Longarm is sent out to the tiny town of Crooked Lance to fetch a prisoner, a cow thief captured by the town's 'vigilance committee'. Seems Long wasn't the first marshal dispatched to Crooked Lance. What happened to his predecessor is unknown.

Longarm does make it to Crooked Lance and finds he's in the middle of a mess. The prisoner is a nobody named Cotton Younger, but he may have ties to the James/Younger gang and could theoretically provide info on the whereabouts of Frank and Jesse James. Because of this Longarm isn't alone in wanting to bring Younger to justice...

I enjoyed the writing of this first book. I wish I could find a list of the different authors who wrote 'Tabor Evans' books, to give credit where credit is due (I did and I have). The author of this one knew his stuff. The writing was rich in incidental detail and made good use of Western idioms. Honestly, the narrative was a lot better than the fan-fiction level writing I was expecting out of what is basically a romance novel for men.

Also, this wasn't the blood'n'guts action-fest I thought it would be. It's really a mystery in the Old West. I'm not sure if that's a formula for the series or just how this first one was handled.

The dialog was a bit clumsier than the narration. I thought the 'Western accent' was laid on pretty thick with more 'Gawd's and 'durn's than you could shake a stick at. It did make the book fun to read through though.

This book is no classic, but it was lots of fun. ( )