Texas Tempest

THE TRAILSMAN #367

By Jon Sharpe

Signet, May 2012

Skye Fargo can’t believe it when a French nobleman offers him a small fortune to guide him and his family through the dangerous wilds of west Texas. He also can’t believe that he actually accepts what might as well be a suicide mission. But if anyone can guide this greenhorn group of Gallic gawkers to hell and back, it’s the Trailsman….

Jon Sharpe has put together an excellent set of people for Fargo to guide, a right explosive mix of characters that are craving the excitement of the American West, the more dangerous the better for can they not hold their own against anything west Texas has to offer?

As if Comanches and enraged buffalo aren’t enough of a problem for Fargo to deal with, there are members of the French party who have taken a dislike to him, resent his presence - and there are the female twins who see him as a sexual conquest. Finally there is someone trying to kill him, the favoured weapon being poisonous darts. Soon suspicion falls on all members of the French family and their servants and this gives the book its mystery elements as Fargo attempts to figure out the who and why. The author, in this case David Robbins writing as Jon Sharpe, keeps that from the reader and through comment and deed puts many of the characters into the frame as possible culprits.

The book is full of action, snappy prose, and grin worthy sarcasm and put-downs as Fargo struggles to keep them all alive, and being this is a Trailsman book you just know that not everyone will survive the journey.

The conclusion offers some surprises to just who is involved in wanting Fargo dead and why. There’s a mass killing that I wasn’t expecting that leads to some horrific revelations about what the main killer wants and is perfectly capable of doing to achieve their aims. This person has to be one of the most cold-hearted killers to appear in a Trailsman book for some time.

Texas Tempest is a fast paced, entertaining read that once again leaves me eagerly looking forward to the next book in the series.