Longarm and the Innocent Man

Longarm #376

by Tabor Evans

Longarm knows a pardon’s no good to a man if he’s six feet under…

Of the many men Longarm’s brought to the gallows, most proclaimed their innocence. But Neal Bird, who’s set to swing for killing a shopkeeper and an Arapaho girl, might not be spinning yarns. Trouble is, his yellow lawyers have abandoned him...
 
Something in Longarm believes Bird. So he sets out to pin the real killer. But finding the suspected cowhand who goes by Billy Boy could prove a challenge—and time’s a-ticking…

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Tabor Evans is the author of the long-running Longarm western series, featuring the adventures of Deputy U.S. Marshal Custis Long. Tabor Evans, is a house pseudonym used by a number of authors. The pseudonym of Tabor Evans would begin in the 1970s when Lou Cameron established it for the Jove Books publishing label. Lou Cameron helped create the character and wrote a number of the early books in the series. The first book was published in 1978. Other authors known to have written books in the series include Melvin Marshall, Will C. Knott, Frank Roderus, Chet Cunningham, J. Lee Butts, Gary McCarthy, James Reasoner, Jeffrey M. Wallmann, Peter Brandvold and Harry Whittington. In addition there are 29 "Giant" editions published as well.

The Longarm series is a mainstay of the "adult western" genre which arose in the 1970s. These books are distinguished from classical westerns by the inclusion of more explicit sex and violence.

Reviews

[Skjam! · Rating 2 out of 5]

Warning: May be triggery for rape.

Like the previously reviewed "Gunsmith" series, this is a long-running paperback Western series with plenty of bloodshed and sex. The main character is Custis "Longarm" Long, a deputy U.S. Marshal who's as good with bedding women as he is at shooting outlaws.

In this particular story, Longarm learns that a murderer he helped bring in some years before may actually be innocent, and agrees to take some time to learn the truth. In the process, he somehow finds time to have sex with three different women, though one of the cases is her raping him. (He doesn't recognize this as rape, but the reader will know differently.) The plot is fairly trite, with more time given to showing off Longarm's personality quirks than to the investigation.

Certainly not worth the $6 cover price, but if you see it at a garage sale or deep discounter, a quick read for the kind of person who enjoys this sort of thing.

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