Servant of the Law
This novel of the American Old West has a severe case of split personality. On one side is the Coyote Kid, a born killer, a hired gun with no compunction at ending the lives of those he’s employed to eliminate. On the other is the title character, Marshal John Wesley Michaels, as upright and square-shooting as any of the cowboy heroes whose exploits I used to follow in the Saturday movie matinees of days (long) gone by.
The Coyote Kid’s exploits are bloody and (seemingly) lovingly described in all of their gory detail. John Wesley is polite to women, kind to animals, and generally just a nice fellow to have around town. In all honesty, I imagine that most of the inhabitants of Arizona at this time of history fell somewhere in between.
Aiding the marshal, in this which may become the first of a series, is Mrs. Arnold (as he calls her), the mother of a small boy accidentally shot and killed by the Kid, and she thirsts for vengeance. A male-female team of intrepid law-enforcers? It might make for interesting reading, but for historians, it might take a few hefty swallows before it can go down, if at all.
