One Last Review?
(I don't think so)
One Last Hanging
In One Last Hanging, Jeff Crawford steers
Noah’s journey toward a conclusion that you know will be a nigh-on certainty.
However, that takes nothing away from the story, because it’s how he arrives
there that matters.
As the blurb highlights:
*****
All the enemies of his past had been
laid low, all the ends had been gathered and tied. Now was the time he was
supposed to be enjoying his life, his work, his advancing years. But on a
drunken afternoon, a man of no worth and no redeemable qualities made a
grievous error in judgment. One that would completely upend Noah Weyland’s
life. Upon hearing the news, Noah knew that there was One Last Hanging that he
would have to carry out before his days were through. Elise Weyland was
promised the vengeance that was owed to her, and Noah would bring it to her
feet. It was the very least that he could do for his wife.
The man, still in a drunken haze, had been
arrested immediately after causing the accident that cost Elise her life. A
short time later, he was tried and sentenced to hang. Now all that remained for
Noah’s long-time friend Rhoden, the local sheriff, was keeping Silas Jacoby
alive long enough to be executed. Fearful of the destruction that Noah was sure
to bring down upon the town just to get to the man Rhoden had in custody,
Rhoden secrets his prisoner out of town until the time for the sentence to be
carried out.
With Jilley, his ranch foreman, by his side,
Noah scours southwest Texas for Rhoden and the man he is keeping hidden away.
Not generational storms, not cages made of steel, not highway men with plans
and motives of their own will keep Noah Weyland from doing what he promised his
wife. With each rising of the sun, with each determined stride from his horse,
the time of reckoning draws ever closer. But at journey’s end there is a choice
to be made between what he should do and what he said that he would do. How
much will Noah allow the past to influence the future? Will doing as he has
been asked force him to break the promise that he made?
*****
Yes, Noah’s soul
mate is dead. Killed by a fool in a drunken haze who now knows he’ll never live
to see old age. And as I mentioned at the beginning, there’s an inevitability
about this story that that takes nothing away from the narrative. Because it’s
HOW Noah ensures he honors his wife’s name and memory that just so darn
entertaining.
Yes, the man
responsible has been sentenced to death. And yes, he’s going to hang for his
crimes. But Noah’s sense of justice sees only one way to bring those events
about in a way that will douse the flames of his ire . . . if only for a short
while, at any rate.
And no one, not
the judge; not Sherriff Rhoden; not his deputy, Lands; not even the reprobates
who try to intervene will stand in Noah’s way.
I thoroughly
enjoyed this story. It’s immersive. It’s personal. It calls to your darker
side. Most of all, it’s profoundly satisfying, and will stay with you long
after you’ve read the last word.
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