The Trailsman #343

TEXAS HELLIONS

as by Jon Sharpe

Signet, May 2010

Fargo is in the bustling town of Dallas at the request of one Abe Broxton. Abe’s stubborn son packed up and headed out west with his wife, without so much as a wagon train for protection. Worse, they were last seen heading across the Staked Plain – a violent wasteland where few come out alive. And the Trailsman is the only one who can find them.

Skye Fargo is saddled with a group of characters that will test his patience to the limit. All these people well portrayed, providing a crazy mix that you just know are going to provide more than enough problems for the Trailsman.

There are the two sons, one a weak coward who’s lost the will to live, the other who seems to enjoy killing. There is the servant who is a proud warrior, a man more than capable when he has to fight. Then there’s Evie who enjoys playing games with men and using them to get just what she wants. And it’s not just these people Fargo has to deal with, there’s the Comancheros who soon want them all dead.

This great cast of characters allows the author (in this case David Robbins writing as Jon Sharpe) to fill the book with excellent dialogue, many times having me laughing out loud as Fargo’s frustrations boil over in sarcastic comments. The action is first rate and graphic. The story moves forward at tremendous pace and includes many cliff-hanger situations that defy the reader to put the book down before its end. A conclusion that really shows that Fargo can be as brutal as anyone else in the book and provides a just ending for one of the characters.

Definitely a book not to be missed if you’re a fan of this series – or indeed of David Robbins writing.