Page Murdock works as a deputy for Judge Harlan Blackthorne out of the Montana Territory. When the Judge sends him on a mission down into Texas, he puts up a bit of resistance, eventually agreeing to the assignment. A gang is terrorizing the Texas panhandle and he seems to think they will eventually work their way north. The town of Owen, Texas, right in the middle of their depredations, is suspiciously free of activities. The Texas Rangers have most of their people working along the border and will be able to offer scant help.
The plan first is to have Murdock murdered, publicly, then have him sneaked out of town to take instruction from a defrocked priest and his ex-nun wife. It’s a stormy relationship there, but he learns what he can and the packet he eventually gets from Blackthorne has a forged ID that identifies him as Brother Bernard Sebastian of the Church of Evangelical Truth. He’s been hired as minister of the Owen church by a sheep rancher named Freemason, owner of one of the largest spreads in the area, a man who’s been hit particularly hard with a payroll stolen and the replacement hijacked as well. Freemason is of opinion that the cattle faction is behind it all as he’s made inroads with laws protecting the sheep men in Texas.
His undercover identity starts to unravel quickly as Freemason’s wife turns out to be an old acquaintance of Murdock’s, Coleen Baronet formerly, a gambler he’d ran into several times and who’d tried to kill him on one of them. She agrees to keep his secret, informing him that Blackthorne and Freemason have a thorny past, believing Murdock there to investigate her husband.
It sets Murdock to thinking. Blackthorne was notoriously closed mouth and had maybe not told him everything.
Being the new preacher in town allows him to ask questions, under the guise of getting to know the people, but he learns someone is suspicious as his room has been searched while he was out. Good though they were, Murdock is an old hand at this and had made preparations. He always carries his Deane-Adams pistol, an English weapon, in a shoulder holster, so he seems to pass muster.
But a series of ambushes and murders, lead flying around and at him, makes Murdock realize he’s closer than he realizes.
A satisfying plot and resolution.
I’ve been a fan of the Page Murdock novels, but other than those and BLOODY SEASON, his take on the Wyatt Earp story, along with his two Holmes pastiches, I’ve not read any other Estleman. I should read at least some of his Amos Walkers, and likely will some day, but, Lord, I have so many waiting for me to get to them now. The plight of the reader.