The Man in Black by L.R. Liverpool – Review by Santana Hicks

The Man In Black by L.R. Liverpool
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fenimore was the son of a farmer but always dreamed of becoming more. Having read a lot of articles about famous outlaws, Fenimore decided that it’s the life he always dreamed of. He set off on his adventure of finding a gang and becoming famous as well, changing his name to Simon Shaw.

Time goes by when he meets Red Evans and his gang. Simon is invited to join the gang and doesn’t hesitate. Quickly he learns that life as an outlaw is nothing like he imagined. He thought it was all adventure and riches, never taking into account it also included murders and life on the run. On top of that revelation, he also is questioning his sexuality. Simon started developing feelings for Red’s second in command, Monty.

Killings among the crew start happening and it is a mystery as to who is doing it. The killer is always one step ahead of the gang causing Red to start losing his marbles thinking that he has a rat within his own men. Simon starts regretting this whole thing but it’s too late to tuck tail and go home especially when he could be the next victim.

I have to say that this book has so much going on within that I am finding it difficult to put into words. I usually hate reading anything of the Western style but the other going ons in the synopsis intrigued me. Even though to me Westerns are boring, this one was not. There was romance, mystery, murder, and it delved into darker topics like racism, homophobia, possible rape etc. It was packed full to the brim with different topics.

My only issues with this book are that the author kept switching from first name basis to last name basis of the characters that I found it a bit difficult to keep track of who’s who. The second issue is the book is divided into 3 parts and part 1 felt like it was dragging on too long before anything of importance happened. Once I started in part 2, the plot started to speed up and get more exciting.

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