LAST OUTLAW begins with a barnstorming opening scene, told with a good deal of wit and surprise, it sets us up for something really rather special.
Then we meet the Preachers, led by John Arthur. They’re a small gang of outlaws in the wild west, about to take on their last heist, hoping for a payday that will allow them to move on to more dignified pastimes. A bit of backstory here locks a couple of characters together, which builds our understanding of their bond well, and you know that this will be meaningful as we get into the heart of the story.
But as the story moves to the sleepy town of Haddington, we start to learn that all is not quite as it seems. What starts off as the preamble to a heist turns into something really quite different and unexpected. It’s not easy to say more without giving away important details best discovered in the reading. I will say this though; everytime you think you have the story sussed, it pulls the rug and gives you something else, in a really good way.
LAST OUTLAW mixes a few genres together with glee. It’s predominantly of course a Western, with many of the tropes you would come to expect from the genre, however these exist to lull you into a false sense of security. And while there are a lot of genuinely funny moments (honestly, the humour in this book is top-notch, with some great one-liners), there are also moments of horror that creep in from the edges of the tale initially and eventually become front and centre during a magnificently choreographed, action-packed set-piece of a finale. The beautiful, poignant coda that follows is the icing on the cake.
Told with stylish economy, with a range of well defined characters that leap off the page, and texture in spades, I found LAST OUTLAW to be a highly readable page-turner. Oh, and the cover art is awesome.
Buy LAST OUTLAW on Amazon