Read: "Death Head Crossing" by James Reasoner

Read: Death Head Crossing by James Reasoner, 2007, 9780786018895.

Fairly decent. A quick paperback Western. Another Crider recommendation; maybe I should start to think for myself more.

Drifting gunman Hell Jackson is traveling through West Texas when he comes across three toughs torturing an old Indian man. Hell doesn't want to interfere but ends up killing the three toughs. Bidding the old man's dying request, Hell travels to the town of Death Head Crossing to give the old man's granddaughter the man's religious "treasures".

Jackson stays in Death Head for a short while and out of curiosity gets involved in a local murder mystery involving the Hand of God The Hand is an unknown man murdering locals for their sinful behaviour. Jackson and a New York journalist band together to look into the murders.

This is a quick entertainment read. Reasoner's characters are fun and the novel does not pack in a bunch of the standard Western cliches. Death Head does not have the gore and sex of some other western series. Reasoner has written a ton and a half of westerns and I wonder if he skips from sub-genre to sub-genre; write a sex Western here, a violent western there.

According to Crider, and some other dudes posting on Crider's website, Reasoner has done some ghostwriting for other big name authors. Reasoner refuses to give a clue about who he has ghostwritten for. I reckon the penalties for spilling the beans would be financially severe.