Longarm #390

Longarm and the Bloody Relic

By Tabor Evans

Jove, May 2011

If you are intending to read this book then please skip the second paragraph below, which is the blurb from the book, and in my opinion gives away too much of the plot. Tells you the secret of the Star of Father Cristobal, a secret the author doesn’t reveal until near the end of the story.

When someone steals the Star of Father Cristobal from a mission in San Antonio, Deputy U.S. Marshal Custis Long is called on to recover the religious relic. But with no witnesses to the theft, it’s gonna take a miracle to get it back.

Turns out the Star may hold the key to finding a legendary treasure. But the one man who can decode its ancient clues has been kidnapped by a ruthless French fortune hunter. After a sexy Mexican dancer saves Longarm from getting bushwhacked, he’s hot on a trail that may lead to a lost city – and a lot of lost lives…

Right from the opening chapter this book piles action upon action. There’s gunfights, chases, and a little bed-room fun, and mystery, as Longarm attempts to find the Star of Father Cristobal and discover why it was taken, and by whom. If that’s not enough then there’s the kidnapping to add further intrigue. And then there’s Longarm’s desire for revenge – his need to kill a couple of bad-guys for murdering an innocent girl.

So, as I said, this is an action packed book, that starts fast and keeps upping the pace until the secret of the Star is solved and a final showdown takes place, resulting in a just death for the main bad-guy.

Great to see Jessica Starbuck get a few mentions too. As does her final adventure in the Lone Star series – I can’t say more than that without giving away part of this story.

When I tell you the author writing behind the pseudonym of Tabor Evans this time is James Reasoner, I’m sure many western readers will realise that they are going to get a quality read from this book. In fact I’d say this is one of James’ best entries in the series, and he’s written a fair few of them since his first appeared way back in October 1993. Sadly it seems this will be his last, and if that does turn out to be true then it’s definitely a great book to finish with. Let’s just hope James returns to writing Longarm books further down the trail.