Tuesday, February 7, 2012

The Devil's Odds-Milton T. Burns

The Devil's Odds


Milton T. Burns

Minotaur, Feb 28 2012, $25.99

ISBN: 9780312643355



In 1942 Jim Rutherford sends friend Texas Cattle Ranger Association Detective Virgil Tucker to meet a frightened woman at the Longhorn Barroom of the exclusive Weilbach Hotel in San Gabriel. Madeline Kimbell explains she witnessed two hoods working for Marty Salisbury murder Beaumont City Council lawyer Henry DeMour outside the Snake Eyes Nightclub in Port Arthur. Additionally, Madeline is hiding from her former boyfriend Jefferson County Deputy Sheriff Nolan who demands they marry.



Virgil takes Madeline to a safe house, but she abruptly flees and is found dead. Meanwhile Virgil finds himself in the crosshairs of a mob fight as New Orleans mobsters want to take over the Galveston operations from the kinder gentler local gang. Virgil leads with his fists in the middle of a WWII range war.



With a powerful sense of time and place, The Devil’s Odds is a superb historical thriller in which readers will feel they are traversing the Texas Gulf Coast circa 1942 when law enforcement used local methods. Fast-paced and filled with action, Virgil is a delight as a kick butt nourish hero with a soft heart.



Harriet Klausner

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