The victim’s father has already been to the Pinkerton Agency twice. Now he’s back a third time to hire himself a detective.
One look at the poor man’s face and Raider is hooked. He’ll track down the dapper-dressing dude who raped and killed the young girl. But finding the cold-blooded killer with unlimited cash and a brilliantly twisted mind ain’t easy.
All Raider has to go on is the killer’s gruesome handywork with a blade, and a trail of murder that leads to a bloody showdown.
This book reads like a detective novel in a western setting. Raider, riding alongside the grieving father of one of the dead girls, is after a serial killer rapist. The lack of leads makes his task almost impossible. Slowly, little bits of information come to light but can Raider piece them together to track down and stop the killer before other girls fall victim to his blade?
The author, this time Frank Roderus writing as J.D. Hardin, switches between Raider and his quarry regularly. We share the twisted thoughts of the killer and find out why he’s murdering the girls. Raider’s frustration at failing to discover who the killer quickly comes over strongly. Even when he thinks he knows who is after, finding him is one hell of a challenge as the Pinkerton has no idea as to where the killer will strike next. I did feel, at times, Raider was a bit slow in working things out as one clue was very evident near the beginning of the story.
I was surprised to discover thoughts on mental health in a western and how much the story touched on issues we hear a lot about today. Child trauma being used to explain the reason behind the killer’s actions. As the tale developed, I started to think this plot is like something you’d see on TV’s Law and Order: Special Victims Unit – which was fine by me as that is one of my favourite programmes.
The Raider books are classed as being adult westerns so that means the stories contain explicit sex scenes. Surprising, Raider misses out on any of this although he does find himself in a position to indulge in the pleasures of the flesh at one point but turns her down. It’s the killer who enjoys sex, even though his unwilling partners don’t. This makes for some brutal reading at times. This particular story also includes some very crude language, especially in the opening scenes, after that it is used sparingly.
Although Raider doesn’t get involved in much action until the end of the book, I did find his efforts to find and stop the killer made for some gripping reading. Yes, the story did play out pretty much as I expected, which includes who finally finished off the killer but not the how.
Frank Roderus can always be relied upon to provide solid entertaining reading and this book left me thinking I must read something else by him soon.
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