Desert Knights

as by Barry Cord

A Black Horse Western from Hale, 1995

Windy and Long Jim weren’t looking for trouble, they just wanted to hand over a corpse to the local law. But the law in Goliath didn’t seem too interested, and when it turned out the dead man was a friend of Windy’s nephew, Quincy, they decided to take the matter into their own hands. Suddenly they found themselves in the middle of Mexican bandit, El Porcito’s, plans for a revolution.

From Windy and Long Jim’s discovery of a corpse strapped to the back of a camel you know you’re in for an entertaining read. Barry Cord (rn. Peter Germano) writes a fast paced and tough story that I found impossible to put down, in fact finished it the same day I picked it up.

As the mystery surrounding Quincy and why he was in Goliath gets more and more complex, more characters are introduced and it begins to look like Windy and Long Jim will never find Quincy. Even the local law want them out of town.

Cord seems to be a master of letting the reader think he knows what’s going on and then introducing someone else to further complicate matters. Here this is dramatically done with the arrival of Quincy’s wife Linda whose attitude is superbly written, her comments and treatment of those around her having me laughing out loud.

Linda isn’t the only strong woman in the book, there’s Maria, but what is her role in the story? And what of Felipe, the boy thief? All of Cord’s characters will play important roles in the outcome of the book.

If you haven’t read a Barry Cord book yet, then maybe it’s time you did.

 

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