From Publishers Weekly
Fackler continues the story of western gunman Seth Strummar in this somewhat weak third installment in her series about his life. In 1881, Seth has left Texas, assumed responsibility for his son, Lobo, and acquired a new partner, Mexican Joaquin Ascarate. But turning his back on his former ways proves more difficult than Seth imagined. He has to deal first with his prodigious libido, which leads him to promiscuous behavior in front of his son, who asks uncomfortable questions. Then the trio falls in with a shady character named Blue Rivers. Eventually Seth and his cohorts find themselves in jeopardy on the wrong end of a posse, involved in the aftermath of the Lincoln County war and at odds with one of Rivers's men, whose wife Seth beds. By novel's end, Seth will try once more to reform. Fackler writes with an easy grace and has a good ear for dialogue. Flashbacks to Seth's early life provide counterparts to the current action and help add resonance, but readers unfamiliar with the previous books may not be charmed. Seth's violent and demeaning attitude toward women will leave many annoyed, though Fackler hews to genre traditions in this respect.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
This is no ordinary western. Seth Strummar is a gunfighter trying to change his life. He's accepted the responsibility for his five-year-old son, Lobo, and taken on a partner, Joaquin Ascarate. There was trouble with Seth's former partner, Ben Allister, an alcoholic psychopath with a homosexual attraction to Seth. Ben would watch Seth cavort with whores and then, spurred by jealousy and his sadistic nature, assault the women. As his alcoholism deepened and his frustration over Seth increased, Ben's violence toward the women escalated, finally ending in death. Seth is not only running from his past, he's desperately trying to cope with overwhelming guilt. The plot is simple: Seth and Joaquin attempt to rescue a friend who's been incarcerated by a crooked sheriff. To gain access to the compound, Seth exploits the love of a young girl who has sex with the guards to distract them. The third Seth Strummar novel is graphic, violent, and populated with manipulative, self-serving moral defectives. Perhaps "western noir" is the best way to classify it, but unlike much noir fiction, this isn't a story of relative innocents who indulge a weakness and are swallowed up in hell. Maybe Seth was once innocent, but he's been in hell a long time and, despite his declarations, doesn't seem eager to leave. A troubling, unusual western that will offend some and intrigue others. Wes Lukowsky
