A gang of vigilantes calling themselves The Vigilance Committee are preventing a part of the Indian Territory from becoming a State, and Buck Armstrong and his partner Louie Lewis are being paid to bring them in.
The two former Texas Rangers have been hired by local businesses to stop the vigilantes. Newspaper articles about the hangings being done by the Committee are worrying members of Congress about to vote on statehood. Making their job difficult is that most of the area’s big ranchers don’t really care. They believe hanging rustlers is a good thing. On top of that, a pair of gunslingers each with personal plans for revenge against the former Rangers are in town.
What happens when Buck and Louie get too close to members of the Committee? That is when Louie ends up at the end of a hangman’s noose.
I’ve read and enjoyed a couple of books by William Sheehy a few years ago under one of his pseudonyms; J.D. Ryder (the other being Carlton Youngblood), so was looking forward to this one which carries his own name.
Bill Sheehy writes in an easy-to-read style that flows well, encouraging you to read more. The plotline isn’t complicated and meanders quite a bit which I felt slowed down the story and came across as padding. Sheehy spends a lot of time telling the backstory of his characters, even those that have little to do with the plot or in moving the tale forward. I did wonder if there were clues in these backstories as to the identity of The Committee members and who ran the group, so I read them rather than skip them. Sheehy does well in keeping these identities hidden though, so this kept me interested in reading the rest of the book.
There’s not a lot of action in this story. It’s a very talky tale as Buck and Louie spend most of their time riding around and asking questions of various people – and learning their backstories. Buck and Louie also get to reflect on incidents from their pasts too. I guess this is done to flesh out the characters and does so to varying degrees.
As the story played out as I expected it would I began to correctly guess at the identity of the Committee members but Sheehy did spring a surprise or two near the end that I didn’t see coming which gave a darker tone to the end of the book.
The Vigilance Committee War was an ok read. If this was the first book I’d read by this author it may well have been my last as lengthy backstories that have nothing to do with the plot really aren’t to my taste. The other two books I’ve read by Sheehy were much better so I’m sure I’ll give another a go somewhere down the trail.
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