Wednesday 26 August 2020

GET OUT OF TOWN


SHERIFF AARON MACKEY 3
By Terrence McCauley
Pinnacle, September 2020

Dover Station, Montana, is no place for a lawman. A sheriff’s badge ain’t worth a nickel here – unless you’ve got the bullets to back it up . . .

When he signed up to be sheriff of this dirty little boomtown, Aaron Mackey knew he was asking for trouble. Once, when Mackey was the U.S. marshal for the whole Montana Territory, he swore no job could get any harder. But that was before he took down a few of the bank-robbing Hancocks – and incurred the wrath of the gang’s maniacal matriarch, Mad Nellie Hancock.

And the was before every avenging outlaw and hired henchmen came crawling out of the woodwork to kill him – in the meanest, bloodiest showdown the town had ever seen . . . 

Aaron Mackey knows you can’t fight city hall. But you can flush out every kill-crazy outlaw, greedy grifter, and boomtown rat – then exterminate with extreme prejudice . . . 

Murder, political wrangling, outlaws, lawmen, intrigue, opium, gunfights, tense standoffs, false accusations, this story has them all and much more.

Terrence McCauley brings back all those characters who survived the previous books and adds a few new ones to spice up this excellent mix in a twisting plot that proves to be a gripping read. Mackey’s new role as a U.S. Marshal gives him more ground to cover but his desire to take on the people he sees as ruining Dover Station also puts him at odds with his new employers.

The power hungry Grant is the man Mackey is determined to bring down but the crooked mayor always seems one step ahead of the lawman. Grant also has the Hancock clan working for him and they cause a lot of trouble for Mackey. 

As the plotlines entwine so the tension mounts. Will Mackey find the proof he needs to bring down Grant once and for all? As the story races towards the end it seems that Mackey is doomed to fail in his mission. 

Terrence McCauley has once again come up with a page-turner, a book that is very hard to put down. McCauley’s pacing is superb, his descriptions vivid and his plot ensnares the reader from the opening page.

Get Out of Town is another terrific entry in this first-class series and I’m now counting down the days until the fourth book, Dark Sunrise, hits the shelves in November.  


1 comment:

David Cranmer said...

He's an exceptional writer. I enjoyed his first western and plan to read more.