Longarm #322

LONGARM and the MISSING MISTRESS

as by Tabor Evans

Jove, September 2005

With her heavenly voice, chanteuse Miss Claire has just about every man in Denver wrapped around her little finger, but she needs a man like Deputy U.S. Marshal Custis Long to keep her alive. Notes of the not-so-musical kind have been sent to her from someone who wants to shut her up – for good…

Besides the thousand dollars if he catches the rascal, Longarm is promised some fringe benefits from Miss Claire herself. But Longarm is left singing the blues when the star is murdered!

Miss Claire’s death happens as Longarm is gunned down and he believes he sees Miss Claire killed in front of him. That’s when things take a turn for the strange and it seems Miss Claire’s murder may have been staged...

This book proved to be a satisfying read, as a grumpy Longarm finds himself going to watch Miss Claire perform, something that’s not his kind of entertainment. As soon as he’s working for Miss Claire the action hots up and races to its conclusion. Along the way the reader meets some great characters as the mystery of Miss Claire’s ‘death’ becomes more involved. As well as gunplay there’s quite a bit of humour too.

Occasionally I wondered how much research this author had done into the character of Longarm - or more so those he works with, as there was no mention of Henry, his boss’s harassed assistant, and there was a major scene where Henry should have made an appearance.

Still these little questionable areas didn’t dampen my enjoyment of this book and I would say it should go down well with fans of this series.