Longarm and the Lone Star Showdown

 as by Tabor Evans

Jove, August 1986

The sixth giant Longarm adventure and the sixth to team him up with the Lone Star duo of Jessica Starbuck and Ki.

Trouble was brewing, and Longarm could smell it a mile away. Savage cartel leader Wolfer Goswick was planning a takeover of Oregon and California territories – and he was assembling a vicious army of outlaws to do the job. Jessica Starbuck was the prime target, but before Longarm called relay the bad news to Jessie and Ki, the U.S. Marshal was thrust into a life or death struggle.

At the same time the Lone Star duo had arrived at one of Jessie’s ranches to find it under attack from a large number of outlaws, and the question is why? As events unfold it seems the cartel is behind this latest threat and the final showdown with them is about to erupt…

If you want action this book is filled with it. For the first half of the book Longarm is almost in a continual gunfight. Jessie and Ki have their share of action too as they begin to suspect the cartels involvement. Interesting to see that the author has all three of them battling against fire and water in this part of the book.

The violence and action doesn’t let up for a minute and continues with the same ferocity once Longarm and the Lone Star duo join forces to take on the cartel’s leaders.

I couldn’t help but wonder if the author had seen a James Bond movie before writing this one as many elements would have seemed at home in a Bond story, such as Longarm being dropped out of a chair into a shaft that sees him landing in a cellar in which two mountain lions wait. Also the leader’s of the cartels’ temple with its maze of hidden passageways.

An entertaining enough read, although I felt maybe a little less action could have made way for a more complex plot, especially as this is the final showdown with the cartel.