By Louis Masterson
WR Films Entertainment Group, Inc.
eBook, May 2012
“Five thousand dollars for Roy Zarco – dead or alive!”
In El Paso, Roy Zarco – a get-rich-quick speculator with an eye for the women – had been sentenced to twenty years’ hard labor for theft and murder. At the time he swore vengeance. Now, eight years later, he’d escaped from the chain gang at Yuma State Prison. These years had brutalized Zarco – had made him more an animal than a man. He was making his way east, and already four people he’d encountered lay dead.
Kane’s brief was simple. He was to go to El Paso and await the arrival of the Monster from Yuma…
This story begins shortly after the previous book, Pistolero, ended. Kane, still saddened by the loss of the girl, has turned to the bottle for comfort. He’s also beginning to doubt his ability, fearing he’s losing his nerve. These are themes Louis Masterson will return to time and again throughout the series as the strains of the job begin to take their toll on Morgan Kane. Something that for me is a large part of the appeal of this series, hell, Kane even sheds some tears in this story – how many other westerns heroes do you witness suffering in this way?
Kane may be the lead character but this time the story follows the trail of The Monster from Yuma more or less equally. Masterson tells of how Roy Zarco became this monster. Kane’s investigation into the background has him wondering whether Zarco ever was guilty of murder.
Masterson again peoples his book with memorable characters and in this story the female leads stick in the mind the most. One, although talked about, we don’t meet until near the end, but it’s she that will have the most impact on Kane, and provides the powerful, bitter, sting-in-tail. A strong ending indeed.
This book is essential reading for those following the Kane series, due to the cracks beginning to appear in Kane’s soul.
The Morgan Kane books are now available at www.kobobooks.com as well as the usual places such as iTunes and Amazon.
No comments:
Post a Comment