Longarm and the Dwarf's Darling -- Tabor Evans

LONGARM AND THE DWARF’S DARLING is another good entry in the Longarm series by Peter Brandvold, writing as Tabor Evans. In this one, Longarm is sent to Wyoming to track down a missing witness in a murder case. The defendant is the dwarf of the title, the villainous Titus Turley, whose hired guns have just about taken over the town of Chugwater and murdered the mayor. The courageous sheriff of the town has the dwarf locked up in jail, but if Longarm can’t locate the missing witness (who happens to be a beautiful woman, of course) by the time the circuit court judge arrives, the sheriff will have to release Turley to continue his reign of terror. Naturally, the dwarf’s gunmen are on the witness’s trail, too, with orders to kill her before Longarm can find her and bring her back.

With a set-up like this, you know there’ll be plenty of action in the book, and as usual on that score, Brandvold doesn’t disappoint. He writes some of the best shoot-outs in the business, and his eye for detail, his tongue-in-cheek humor, and his knack for dialogue make this novel a fast, very entertaining read. After not reading any Longarms for a while, I’m having a great time getting back into the series these days.