Review by Roy Boyd

 Spoilers in review

Texas Jack Book 1 introduced sharpshooter Jack and his colleagues. He owns a circus featuring horse riding, knife throwing, mock battles and the like. Jack is surprised to be asked by the government to track and apprehend Ironsmoke, a villain who’s going around murdering settlers, burning down churches and generally making a nuisance of himself. The reason Jack’s surprised? Well, he’s never actually shot at another human being, all his skills having been honed in the ring.

Our band of intrepid heroes joined forces with Marshal Sykes and his group in the preceding volume, after he pulled their fat out of the fire. In this conclusion they continue their pursuit of Ironsmoke, and the biggest complication they face in the early part of book is when Jack’s whip-cracking female friend, Amy O’Hara, chooses to hook up with one of the Marshal’s group, much to Jack’s chagrin.

Soon afterwards, they walk into a trap and it transpires Ironsmoke’s engineered a lot more of their current situation than they’d previously suspected. His masterplan is to kill Jack and his colleagues in an epic duel, to be recorded for posterity by a photographer and writer. This is all to increase Ironsmoke’s fearsome reputation, and it has to be said it’s quite the elaborate plan.

Just in the nick of time, Marshal Sykes (who didn’t walk into the trap) reappears with a bunch of pals and things turn explosively bloody again. The death of a major character adds a tragic note that permeates the book until the bitter end. Afterwards, Jack and his crew put on a circus show re-enacting some of their recent adventures. However, a disgruntled employee sets fire to himself and the circus tent, and it’s up to Jack and friends to save the day yet again.

Dimitri Armand’s artwork is just as impressive as before, and Pierre Dubois also handles his writing duties with aplomb. Both should be applauded for creating clearly delineated characters, which isn’t easy as most are variations on the heavily-whiskered cowboys theme. If this were a movie it would be legally required to feature Sam Elliot as one of the gravel-voiced gunslingers.

Bloody and violent when it has to be, but with equal attention given to characters and their emotional lives, Texas Jack is very enjoyable. Nice and short, with room for more adventures if anyone wants to go that way. Nowadays, everyone is probably more interested in a Netflix adaptation, which could work too, just as long as Sam Elliot’s available.