Clay Nash #25

Paydirt in Scars

by

Brett Waring

(Keith Hetherington)

Clay Nash #25 

Wells Fargo’s top detective, Clay Nash, was transporting a wounded outlaw to San Antonio when he came across the town of Saguaro Flats. Immediately he sensed that the town was hiding a sinister secret. Marshal Mace Tanner ran things with a firm hand, and was not above cold-blooded murder when it suited him. That put him and Clay at loggerheads straight away.

Clay suspected that the town was involved in the smuggling of impoverished Mexicans across the Rio Grande, where wealthy cattle barons could exploit them as cheap labor. Before he could do anything about it, however, he had to prove it.

Technically, it wasn’t any of Clay’s business. But he’d just helped two Mexicans, Manuel and Rosa Alvarez, to cross the big river into the United States, and he hated like hell to think that he might have inadvertently condemned them to a life of pain, misery, starvation and ultimately … death.

Clay Nash rides one last time—and it’s a gripping tale.

From the moment he heads into Saguaro Flats, Nash is fighting uphill battles. Even before arriving, he survives two gunfights and a dangerous crossing of the Rio, all in the effort to drag Laredo Pitt back onto U.S. soil.

But the real trouble begins once he gets there. A crooked sheriff, a ruthless landowner exploiting Mexican laborers, and the slippery Laredo Pitt—who manages to escape again—stand in his way. Add to that a beating, getting shot, and the constant danger, and it feels like this could truly be Nash’s final ride.

As expected from the Cleveland stable, the pace never lets up. Hetherington delivers his trademark blend of sharp writing and relentless action, keeping the reader hooked from start to finish. I’m currently working through the installments I missed, and once I’m done, I may just circle back to revisit the earlier ones.

This was one I had to read in ebook form.