Dead Man’s Badge

This tale of deceit, corruption, and betrayal from Dunn (A Particular Darkness) is long on violent action and short on character development. After Longview Moody, a Mexican cartel cash runner, escapes the corrupt DEA agent who was trying to murder him, he races for home across the border. Along the way, Moody robs a cartel house and kills all the men guarding it. On arriving at the trailer in Lansdale, Tex., that he shares with his straight-arrow half-brother, Paris Tindall, the town’s newly appointed police chief, Moody finds Paris lying dead on the floor. Apparently, Paris, whom he closely resembles, was mistaken for him. After burning down the trailer with his brother’s body inside, Moody decides to assume Paris’s identity and role as police chief. Soon he must deal with the Machado brothers, the Mexican drug lords who threaten Lansdale, and he doesn’t know which police officers, if any, he can trust. Fans of Clint Eastwood’s spaghetti westerns will find a lot to like. (Feb.)