The Devil’s Odds

The Wild West lives in this exciting stand-alone set in early 1940s Texas from Burton (Night of the Red Moon). Virgil Tucker, who’s about to resign from the Texas Rangers and take over his family’s cattle ranch, agrees to help protect a young woman, Madeline Kimbell, who witnessed a murder and is on the run from the killers and a crooked deputy sheriff. Virgil soon stops Madeline’s initial pursuers with brute force, but discovers that a war is going on between homegrown, friendly gangsters and sinister invaders from the New Orleans mob. Virgil realizes that following the rules will be less effective in ending this dispute than using hard fists and hot lead. Tangy atmosphere gives the feel of a place and time when isolated frontier clans still made their own law and loyal ranch-hand vaqueros joined in justifiable homicide. Agent: Ron Goldfarb, Goldfarb and Associates. (Feb.)