A Congregation of Jackals

By S. Craig Zahler
       

      Usually, wedding invitations don't terrify the recipients, but this one was different. It required mandatory attendance, and spelled trouble. It would mean the funerals of some. Oswell Danford had been a member of the "Tall Boxer" gang, but they had split up years ago. Now they would meet up at the wedding of James Lingham. The other members, Richard (Dicky) Sterling, and Oswell's brother, Godfrey, would be there too, and face a showdown with their old ally, Quinlan. Once their friend, Quinlan had become a bitter enemy and, because of a betrayal that couldn't be forgiven, had sworn to kill them all.

Zahler is very fond of showing off his vocabulary with lots of fifty-cent words, no Hemingway or Zane Grey simplicity here, and I found that slightly irritating. A Congregation of Jackals does have a fast moving plot, and characters that are by turns, likable and frightening. The characters are fully developed and easily visualized; they are hard men in a hard land. It's a historical western action novel written for modern readers and the action is fast and violent. The ending is surprising. The good guys always win, right? Think again. This novel leaves you hard pressed to figure out just who are the good guys and who are the bad guys sometimes. Zahler adds a very original and unique take on the old west and its morals and it is always entertaining. You won't want to put it down until you read the last gruesome detail.