The Texas Job

December 15, 2021
The latest case for Texas Ranger Tom Bell takes him back to the dawn of his career in 1931. It's quite an eventful time. Tom's been sent to Pine Top in search of Clete Ferras, who's wanted for a murder in Laredo. Pine Top and environs, however, turn out to be so corrupt that a single homicide barely registers. Together with his pal Quinn Walker, Ferras is bent on acquiring drilling rights to every farm in the area by hook or by crook, and some of those crooks are mighty crooked. Not to be outdone, Walker is dosing his wife, Mallie Whitehorse Walker, with wood alcohol and oleander because he has no intention of waiting till her natural decease to assume control of her extensive land holdings. Capt. Enrique Delgado has already arrived to rein in the criminal conspiracy fostered by oilmen like octopus O.L. Caldwell, but clearly there's far too much crime in Pine Top for just one Ranger to handle. Tom's mission is instantly complicated by the news that a local woman named Hazel Freeman has been shot to death. The conspiracy, however, has roots that reach far beyond Pine Top to Chicago gangster Cherubino Moretti. When Tom shoots the three men Walker and Ferras have hired to kill him, they ask Moretti for help, and he dispatches six of his most reliable professionals. Readers who've already seen Tom grown old in earlier installments of Wortham's Texas Red River series will be rubbing their hands in eager anticipation of what happens next. A familiar but powerful tale of a solitary hero confronting a web of conspirators against hopeless odds.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

December 20, 2021
Set in 1931, this well-crafted crime novel features Texas Ranger Tom Bell, a supporting character in The Right Side of Wrong, Wortham’s third Red River mystery. Bell becomes a target when he discovers a dead body on the outskirts of Pine Top, a bustling oil boomtown in East Texas. Caught in an ambush, he narrowly escapes getting shot before he can report the killing to local lawman Sheriff Dobbs, who has his hands full policing the deluge of roughnecks who have poured into Pine Top in search of work and riches. Unfortunately, the beleaguered Dobbs is disinclined to assist in the ongoing pursuit of a fugitive killer Bell believes is hiding in the town. In addition to evading murderers, Bell winds up battling cutthroat swindlers and greedy predators who are executing landowners in a race to seize land that may yield oil. Authentic settings and richly drawn characters complement Wortham’s striking depiction of the Texas oil boom and the unavoidable corruption, greed, and anarchy that accompany it. Hopefully, Bell will be back in a sequel. Agent: Anne Hawkins, John Hawkins & Assoc.

January 1, 2022
Reviewers taking on a Wortham novel will make heavy use of cowboy-movie images. As Texas Ranger Tom Bell moves center stage, a reader imagines Gary Cooper walking real slow down a dusty street, the big iron on his hip. The image holds even though it's 1931 here, the Depression having savaged the land and Prohibition on its last legs. Bell is on the trail of a killer and finding his mission diverted by the vipers' nest he's kicked over. The sudden discovery of oil beneath played-out land has brought sleazy people to town, and, intentionally or not, this is the best part of the novel. An eight-page scene that has a con man tricking a desperate farmer out of his land is a stunning little playlet. As the narrative moves toward its blood-drenched finale, the unkillable Ranger goes from hero to superhero, ""a man made of hard bone and corded wire."" None of this will put off Wortham's admirers, who can't get enough of ""the sweet natural cologne of leather.

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