Clint
Adams, the Gunsmith, teams up with Ki to track down a gang who stole a sword in
the custody of a friend of Clint’s, killed the man’s wife, and kidnapped his
daughter. Clint’s friendship with Secret Service agent Jim West is mentioned.
Clint has heard about Ki, the partner and bodyguard of rancher Jessie Starbuck,
from Marshal Custis Long. Jessie Starbuck and Ki appeared alongside
Marshal Custis “Longarm” Long in the first ten Longarm Giants by Tabor Evans, as well as their own series, the Lone Star books by Wesley Ellis. Several of the
Gunsmith books by "J.R. Roberts" (Robert J. Randisi) refer to Clint’s friendship with Jim West, who is from the
classic TV western The Wild Wild West.
Clint’s friend Talbot Roper, a Pinkerton and recurring character in the
Gunsmith books, appears as the main character of two novels by Randisi, Bullets
and Lies and The Reluctant Pinkerton.
Brothers Evan, Sam,
and Jubal McCall return to their hometown of Vengeance Creek, Texas seeking justice for the murder of their parents. Sam asks his friend, federal marshal
Page Murdock, to recommend another marshal who can investigate. Page Murdock, the protagonist of a series of books by Loren D. Estleman,
was brought into the CU by a reference in Randisi’s Gunsmith novel Death Times Five. Bat Masterson is described as not yet thirty years
old. Masterson was born in 1853, so I have placed this novel in 1882.
The
bounty hunter known only on Decker hunts down a hired killer called the Baron.
A federal marshal working Wyoming-Montana named Murdock is mentioned; this is a reference to Deputy
U.S. Marshal Page Murdock, the protagonist of a series of books by Loren D.
Estleman, who was brought into the CU by a reference in Randisi’s Gunsmith novel Death
Times Five. This crossover brings in Decker. The other books in the Decker series are Double the Bounty, The Lawman, Beauty and the Bounty, and Broadway Bounty.
