McClain

By Will Keen

The Crowood Press, February 2018

Deputy Marshal McClain is found in his home, kneeling over his dead wife’s body, holding the bloody knife that had killed her. Accused of her murder, he escapes from jail and stumbles across evidence pointing to her killers. So begins a long manhunt that takes him from Arizona to the Texas Gulf Coast and a town on the shores of Laguna Madre. There tangling with the Skeltons, a family of bootleggers, brings McClain more startling information that sees him heading back to Arizona. Tormented by guilt, he at lasts meets his wife’s killer, and deals with him in a way he would never have expected.

A tale that offers questions almost from the very first word that will sweep you up into the storyline with ease and keep you turning the pages as McClain tracks the Skeltons and the death toll mounts. Of course, you will have your own ideas as to who the killer is, but the author includes enough twists and turns to make you doubt your deductions. To say anymore about this aspect of the story would be a major spoiler so that’s all you’re getting from me about the killer’s identity.

McClain makes for a likable hero, one who isn’t above making mistakes which lead to him suffering both mentally and physically. The conclusion is both hard-hitting and apt, leaving me feeling extremely satisfied with how the author decided to end this story.

Will Keen is one of a number of pseudonyms used by John Paxton Sheriff, an author that I have read many times and one that I know will provide me with a very entertaining read. His expertly crafted plots, well-drawn characters, bloody violence and unforeseen surprises combine to make his books must reads. Each time I finish one I’m left looking forward to his next release, and that never comes fast enough for me.