The Trailsman #87

BROTHEL BULLETS

as by Jon Sharpe

Signet, March 1989

Good-looking women in the Arizona wilds were worth their weight in gold for anyone who could supply them to the lonely, lusting men eager to pay for their pleasures.

When a gang of vicious gunmen decided to make a killing in the skin trade, they kidnapped women the same way rustlers stole cattle, and sold them like meat. Their one big mistake was grabbing the two daughters of rich old Owen Hatchfield, because he hired Skye Fargo to rescue them and sweep the desert clean of this filthy, savage scourge. And Fargo lost no time fulfilling his duty, as he shot his way through every brothel and every badman in Arizona…

Fast paced, loads of fighting action, jealous women, and a generous amount of sex (this is an adult western series after all – and the earlier books in this long running series had much more of this than the books do these days), and a twisting plot that sees Fargo trying to solve the mystery of who is behind the kidnapping gang. Fargo is a tough man who’ll back down from no one and will stop at nothing to achieve his goal. Going by the style of writing, and the length of the chapters, I’d guess at this being by series creator Jon Messmann.

A while back I reviewed The Trailsman #100: Riverboat Gold, and I said I was disappointed that it seemed like Fargo and Canyon O’Grady (the lead character from Jon Sharpe’s other series) already knew each other, as I believed they’d been teamed up for the landmark 100th Trailsman book. Brothel Bullets reveals that Fargo and O’Grady had met before and this book is definitely where they first met (whether they team up in any others I’ve yet to discover), and O’Grady has his part to play in bringing down the gang. His past and who he is Messmann keeps shrouded in mystery, I guess to encourage readers to buy the Canyon O’Grady series when it was launched in July 1989.

Overall a very entertaining book in The Trailsman series, and a must read for fans of the Canyon O’Grady series.