WESTERN NOVELS—GUNSMOKE AND ICE

WESTERN NOVELS

GUNSMOKE AND ICE

THE GUNS OF LEGENDE #3

BRODY WEATHERFORD

REVIEWED BY

TIM DEFOREST

I am continuing to love this series. Gunsmoke and Ice is the third in the series about a secret organization in the Old West that takes on missions given to it by (presumably) the government. 

In this case, the mission seems straightforward. A bank robbery in New Mexico leaves a politically-important man dead, so the Alistair Legende is tasked with bringing the killer to justice. He assigns beautiful gambler Emily O'Connor to the job. Emily's ex-husband--whiskey peddler Frank Landry-is also in the area. 

At first, though, he's not an official part of the mission. Instead, he's trying to buy a piece of the local moonshine action. The result is a story that is--at first--a little less structured than the earlier novels in the series. That's not a criticism, though. The storytelling style is appropriate to the plot, as both Emily and Frank are tossed in and out of danger.

Gradually, the action narrows to where the two are helping transport a wagon load of ice from Taos to Tombstone. For reasons that Frank and Emily do not at first understand, the one survivor of of the original bank robbers is relentlessly pursing that ice shipment. The plot allows for a lot of great action--with bullets flying fast and thick-- and we meet a number of very memorable supporting characters along the way.