With an unprovoked attack from Mexico on the Arizona Territory and, subsequently, their family’s ranch looming, siblings Rachel and Richard Ryan head south to Sinaloa to determine President Diaz’s military strength and plans. But as they make their way home after a disappointing trip, Richard inadvertently alerts an enterprising young major in the Sonoran army, the only Mexican state to have put up a successful resistance to the Sinaloans, that he has the know-how to improve Sonora’s chances in the upcoming war. Suddenly, Richard finds himself forcibly conscripted into the Sonora army, and Rachel is critically injured trying to prevent it. While Good Samaritans desperately race Rachel back to her parents’ ranch for medical attention, Richard must follow through on his boasting – his life and freedom hanging in the balance.
Meanwhile, the infamous outlaw, Torn Slater, recently escaped from a Mexican slave-labor mine, and his riding partner, Moreno, head north to let things settle down and work an abandoned silver mine. When Moreno is killed in a cave-in, Slater returns to Mexico to retrieve one of his many secret caches of loot hidden after some previous holdup where he acquires a new saddle pal - a panther cub. The banker at the Mexican institution where Slater conducts his financial finagling asks him to track down a gang of banditos that have been a thorn in the bank’s side for several months. Slater agrees in return for a substantial portion of the recovered funds.
When Rachel and her rescuers reach her parents’ ranch, the young woman receives the medical attention she needs and quickly recovers. Her mother, Katherine, along with her old friend, Torn Slater, then leads a rescue party into the heart of Sinaloa, where Richard is being held since his capture by the notorious Lady Dolorosa – La Señorita – the terrible power behind Porfirio Diaz’s presidency, and two of Slater’s old enemies, the evil and depraved millionaires J.P. Sutherland and Judith McKillian.
DEAD MEN DON’T LIE is not your average nor traditional Western tale. It is much grittier and dark and reads somewhat like one of those men’s action/adventure pulps from the 50s, 60s, or 70s. The story contains numerous scenes of torture, and some of those are sexual in nature. The guests at La Señorita’s palace were frequently getting paddled, which was the mildest of the activities mentioned. However, the underlying plot is substantial, with divergent storylines begun in previous books coming together to make for a robust and lengthy tale. There is some humor, too. I enjoyed the hilariously creative names La Señorita came up with for her loathsome stepson, Eduardo.
DEAD MEN DON’T LIE, although advertised as the start of a new series, appears to continue a previous Torn Slater five-book collection with characters and their backstories from those books making a re-appearance. I thought one of the most interesting parts of the book was the author’s afterword regarding his research into Mexico’s history, Porfirio Diaz, and, most specifically, slavery in Mexico during the time of this book’s setting. That said, I recommend this latest installment in the Torn Slater line to those that enjoyed the previous books and readers that may enjoy an action-adventure story with an old Mexico setting.
Known just as much for his highly realistic, impeccably researched settings and authentic characters as for his action-packed plots, Jackson Cain kicks off a new series featuring notorious outlaw Torn Slater. In this first adventure, he blazes through the lawless wilds of 19th Century Arizona Territory and into the brutal violence of Mexico under the savage dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz.
Wanted in thirteen states. Locked up for two years in a Mexican prison. Released into the wilds of the American West with a twenty-thousand-dollar bounty on his head. The outlaw Torn Slater doesn't just live outside the law, he takes it into his own hands--and makes it cry for mercy...
After robbing some banks, Slater knows he should lay low. But when a beautiful widow asks for his help, he can't say no. Her reckless son has gone looking for trouble in Mexico--and found it in a woman called "La Senorita." This power-mad femme fatale combines the torture methods of the Spanish Inquisition with the heart-ripping rituals of the Aztecs to get whatever she wants. And she wants the widow's son. Slater would be lying if he said taking down "La Senorita" would be easy. But dead men don't lie...
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