Longarm and the Scarlet Rider

by Tabor Evans

Book Overview

Following the trail of missing young women takes Custis Long over the border to a remote town on the Canadian plains, where women are bought and sold, whiskey is cheap--and life is cheaper.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0515140198
• ISBN13: 9780515140194
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Jove Books
• Length: 183 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

A few twists along the way

Young women are disappearing from Montana territory. Longarm is going over the border to find them. Since he has no official authority outside the U.S., he's going to have to co-operate with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The investigation is leading to a remote railhead on the bleak Canadian plains, where women are bought and sold, whiskey is cheap - and life is even cheaper... It doesn't take Longarm long to get on the trail of the missing women and come up with a couple of suspects, but finding them is the problem. There's plenty of characters along the way that maybe involved or maybe not, people who maybe who they say or could be down-right lying. Tabor Evans weaves a plot of intrigue that grips the reader from the very beginning. There's not as much action as in some Longarm books but this doesn't stop this being a worthwhile read for western fans. As usual there's a twist or two before Longarm puts a stop to the criminals activities. All in all another good entry into the Longarm series.

Longarm crosses the Can/US Border for some exciting action.

Longarm has been to Canada before and also crossed paths ,or was it swords with Mounties. This time he and Constable Ryerson work together and make a formidable team to find and bring to justice those responsible for abducting young ladies with the intent of forcing them into prostitution. There may be a few literary licenses taken with historical facts ;but putting them aside,this is certainly one of the better episodes in this great ,long running western series.All through the book,the Mounties are called The North West Mounted Police;but on the back cover summary,they are referred to as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) the present name. Don't get bogged down in historical nitpicking,because that is certainly what that is ,particularly with Western Novels. Writers like Ned Buntline ,used a lot of freedom in telling his tales ;and this mixing of facts ,fiction and especially legend, is the hallmark of Westerns. These pulp writers never were, nor did they ever pretend to be, historians.And since when did historians ever agree,even on the facts? This story is filled with exciting characters,some exciting action,particularly aboard the train and gives a good glimpse at life while building the railroads in the West and the exciting communities, camps,and excitement that followed along. The writer of this episode keeps the story moving right along and it is hard to put down ,once you get started.Even so, he takes time to develop interesting characters and even gives us some of the inner thoughts of our hero ,Longarm,with words like this; "Seems like no matter how many owlhoots a fella catches,there's always another bunch just waiting to raise hell and shove a chunk under the corner."