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The Search for Temperance Moon
When former marshal Oscar Schiller investigates the violent slaying of Temperance Moon, the legendary female outlaw, he rides straight into a web of jealousy, blackmail, and deceit. Reprint.
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 25, 2025
Took almost two months to read this,the sequel to the author’s previous Oscar Schiller mystery/adventures-in-Indian Territory of the 1890s entry.
In this one, Oscar -no longer a federal marshal in Judge Parker’s court, having committed an unpardonable sin in Parker’s eyes- is hired as a private investigator by the daughter of Temperance Moon to solve her mother’s murder.
See… I thought that was resolved in the previous entry.
Overwritten… tediously related. I almost tossed this a couple of times.
But… I stayed for the story telling, to be honest.
In this one, Oscar -no longer a federal marshal in Judge Parker’s court, having committed an unpardonable sin in Parker’s eyes- is hired as a private investigator by the daughter of Temperance Moon to solve her mother’s murder.
See… I thought that was resolved in the previous entry.
Overwritten… tediously related. I almost tossed this a couple of times.
But… I stayed for the story telling, to be honest.
February 6, 2018
One of the trio of historical mysteries featuring Oscar Schiller, one of Jone's most memorable characters. Suggest that potential readers might first read "Sometimes ..." to become acquainted with Oscar's childhood.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
**
copied and pasted "KIRKUS REVIEW -- contains the usual Kirkus spoilers.
The most successful madam in Ft. Smith, Arkansas, hires her own detectives to get to the bottom of her mother's murder--in the latest western by one of the best writers in the genre (Come Winter, Remember Santiago, etc.). Indians are going out, electricity is coming in. It is the 1890's in western Arkansas, just across the river from Indian territory. Jewel Moon, whose silent partners in the operation of her very well-run bordello are a Jewish shopkeeper and a leading WASP banker, has employed suspended US Deputy Marshal Oscar Schiller to apply his formidable skills to an investigation of a murder. She is far from satisfied with the official findings, which tailed to answer why her hard-bitten, nymphomaniac mother Temperance Moon fell to close-fired blasts from a very fancy shotgun in Indian territory. Schiller in turn hires Syrian-born Kansas City policeman Moses Masada to assist him, with the two detectives following various trails from Ft. Smith to the Indian nations and back again until they begin to piece together a story of blackmail, theft, betrayal, and hatred pulling together the banker, a social-climbing Cajun, an uncontrollable Comanche, a misplaced Delaware, numerous Creeks, a couple of bootleggers, Miss Moon's love child, and the most beautiful Indian woman on earth. While all this is going on, Schiller is the target of potshots and of the amorous advances of his landlady; someone tries to blow up the bordello; and Moses Masada falls for the beautiful Indian. Jones continues to enchant. This is not for only western readers.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
**
copied and pasted "KIRKUS REVIEW -- contains the usual Kirkus spoilers.
The most successful madam in Ft. Smith, Arkansas, hires her own detectives to get to the bottom of her mother's murder--in the latest western by one of the best writers in the genre (Come Winter, Remember Santiago, etc.). Indians are going out, electricity is coming in. It is the 1890's in western Arkansas, just across the river from Indian territory. Jewel Moon, whose silent partners in the operation of her very well-run bordello are a Jewish shopkeeper and a leading WASP banker, has employed suspended US Deputy Marshal Oscar Schiller to apply his formidable skills to an investigation of a murder. She is far from satisfied with the official findings, which tailed to answer why her hard-bitten, nymphomaniac mother Temperance Moon fell to close-fired blasts from a very fancy shotgun in Indian territory. Schiller in turn hires Syrian-born Kansas City policeman Moses Masada to assist him, with the two detectives following various trails from Ft. Smith to the Indian nations and back again until they begin to piece together a story of blackmail, theft, betrayal, and hatred pulling together the banker, a social-climbing Cajun, an uncontrollable Comanche, a misplaced Delaware, numerous Creeks, a couple of bootleggers, Miss Moon's love child, and the most beautiful Indian woman on earth. While all this is going on, Schiller is the target of potshots and of the amorous advances of his landlady; someone tries to blow up the bordello; and Moses Masada falls for the beautiful Indian. Jones continues to enchant. This is not for only western readers.
August 2, 2008
Jones does a great job of capturing the feeling of frontier life in this historical mystery. It's set in the Indian Nations territory of the 1890s. Temperance Moon, a well-known madam, has been murdered and her daughter tries to get to the heart of the crime.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews