As hardworking families and ambitious dreamers set down roots across the American West, others swooped down to prey upon them. After the smoke cleared, those who lived by the gun found themselves facing justice – and vengeance . . .
It was supposed to be a simple robbery. A fortune in gold for the taking. What Hack Long and his outlaws hadn’t figured on was the Texas Rangers pouncing on them. Desperate to escape, Long led his men south of the Rio Grande where they ran afoul of Mexican Rurales and were imprisoned.
Unwilling to die behind the bars of the hellish prison where life is worth less than a peso, Long’s band of desperadoes break out of jail and split up to escape. Now, Two-Horses, Luke Fischer, Gabriel Santana, Billy Lightning, and Long are scrabbling along a desolate landscape, heading for Texas to reclaim their ill-gotten gains, hunted by dogged lawmen, merciless Comanche, and a violent gang of bandits who also want the stolen gold.
The story of Hack Long and his outlaw gang starts with them in the Mexican prison plotting their escape. I don’t know why, but I found this part of the tale to be a bit on the slow side, but never-fear, as soon as they are free, the story really picked up and I found the book difficult to put down.
The chapters are short, some being only a couple of pages long. The author often switches between the various members of the Long gang and the different groups of people hunting them. Most of the chapters involve a killing or two as each gang members meets danger on the trail to Texas. Having sixty-four chapters the book therefore contains a high death toll.
The author also fleshes out his main characters, and Billy Lightning’s backstory as to how he got his name was both scary and amusing at the same time. All the characters held my attention and I soon wanted to know what would happen to them, be they good, bad, or somewhere in between.
As they near the town of Barlow, where the gold was hidden, Long begins to wonder if they’ll be able to find their loot again as it becomes apparent the town has grown whilst he and his gang were locked up in Mexico. This is where the author has a neat twist waiting which will really challenge the gang.
Other than the slightly sluggish start, I found The Wicked and the Dead to be a very entertaining read that’s filled with tough violent action. It’s also great to see the Johnstone’s put out another non-series western as this book just has to be a stand-alone title, doesn’t it?
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