The Great Land Swindle

CANYON O’GRADY #10

By Jon Sharpe

Signet, November 1990

When Canyon O’Grady rode into Santa Fe for relaxation, he ran into his boyhood buddy Paddy McNamara. Right now, Paddy was a friend in need of an extra gun, and he figured Canyon would go for some foul play for pay. The redheaded law enforcer went far enough to find out about a plot of assassination and the landgrab he had to stop. But unless he outshot a swarm of savage shootists, outsmarted a snake-slick politician, and loosened the tongue of a senator’s tight-lipped daughter, his old sidekick was going to kick dirt into O’Grady’s grave…

To beat the assassination attempt O’Grady has to solve a few puzzles to work out why someone has ordered the hit and who that person is. This means O’Grady has to play detective, but as he’s a Government Special Agent, this is a role he’s comfortable and capable in.

Canyon does a lot of questioning and meeting of various people in his attempt to stop the assassination. There is also a fair bit of gunplay as someone is out to bury O’Grady. As this is an adult western series there are a couple of ladies eager to share his bed and some of the sex scenes are as explicit as expected but as the story goes on these scenes are glossed over quickly as the race to find the assassin and the men behind it takes center stage.

I believe the author writing behind the pseudonym of Jon Sharpe this time around is Chet Cunningham and at times I felt I could have replaced Canyon with Spur McCoy – the series he wrote as Dirk Fletcher – as the plot could have worked well in the Spur series too.

I found the book to be an enjoyable quick read that held my attention well and as much as wanting to discover how Canyon resolved the assassination plot I was also eager to see how he would deal with his boyhood friend, McNamara.