The Spider Tribe - Heath Lowrance

Hawthorne, the mysterious gunfighter with the cross-shaped scar on his forehead, returns in Heath Lowrance's "The Spider Tribe", and he runs right into the sort of creepy menace that makes the Weird Western genre so much fun.

This time Hawthorne finds a Lakota Sioux village where a massacre has taken place, but the killers aren't the U.S. cavalry as he first assumes. An ancient evil is responsible for wiping out the village, as he discovers when he joins forces with two young survivors to go after the culprits.

As usual in these stories, there's plenty of well-written action, an unrelenting pace, and a palpable sense of lurking evil. Hawthorne is a fine character. Lowrance hasn't told us much about him yet, but I'm sure he will in the future.

"That Damned Coyote Hill" and "The Long Black Train" are the first two yarns in this series, and if you haven't read them yet, you should, even though the stories stand alone. "The Spider Tribe" continues what is fast becoming a tradition of excellence. Highly recommended.