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Stringer #1
Stringer
He’s making news with his fists, his gun…and the ladies. The San Francisco Sun’s freelance field stringer Stuart “Stringer” MacKail needs a new story to sell to pay the bills. His editor sends him back to MacKail’s home town in Calaveras County for an update on an old legend about a stagecoach robbery by “Sulky Jack” and its missing treasure. Stringer’s feet barely hit the ground when the bullets begin flying and it quickly becomes clear that folks are still trying to find the treasure and will stop anyone who gets in their way. Dead bodies, hard drinking and friendly women abound, and it’s up to Stringer to uncover whatever truth may exist to get the story written and get himself back to Frisco in once piece.
- GenresWesterns
184 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 1, 1987
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11 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 22, 2025
Lou Cameron wrote this about ten years after he ghostwrote Longarm and the Highgraders. The book covers in this series even proudly proclaim things like "From the creators of Longarm!" and "In the tradition of Longarm!". This is important because, while the plot (what there is of one) is different from Highgraders, it feels like Cameron used his notes from that book when writing this one. Both take place in Calaveras county. Both mention Mark Twain and the bandit Murietta. Both have our protagonist doing research at the local library and hooking up with the secretly slutty librarian at the librarian's house. I could go on.
The bigger problem, though, is that this isn't a good book. The plot is barely there and nothing happens for long stretches at a time. Stringer talks to someone, then he rides somewhere and talks to someone else. Then he gets back on his horse and rides somewhere else to talk to another person. I was trying my hardest to be invested but by the middle of the book I just wanted it to end. This very short book felt like it was 500 pages.
For as campy as they are, the Longarm books can be pretty fun and Longarm is a fun character to follow around. This, however was like watching paint dry and Stringer himself is as bland as beige. It's weird, too, because Cameron wrote some of the better Longarm novels. I guess he just decided to phone this one in.
The bigger problem, though, is that this isn't a good book. The plot is barely there and nothing happens for long stretches at a time. Stringer talks to someone, then he rides somewhere and talks to someone else. Then he gets back on his horse and rides somewhere else to talk to another person. I was trying my hardest to be invested but by the middle of the book I just wanted it to end. This very short book felt like it was 500 pages.
For as campy as they are, the Longarm books can be pretty fun and Longarm is a fun character to follow around. This, however was like watching paint dry and Stringer himself is as bland as beige. It's weird, too, because Cameron wrote some of the better Longarm novels. I guess he just decided to phone this one in.
June 12, 2017
A Western set in the early years of the twentieth century, so there was some interesting use of the telephone, with rural 'party lines' for communication.
'Stringer' McKail travels from San Francisco- where he's one of those too-honest-to-be-rich-and-famous newspaper reporters- to Calaveras Countys, where he grew up. Not long after arriving, people are trying to kill him. Soon after that, he meets the first of a string of women who want to sleep with him.
It's all got something to do with a stagecoach robbery fifty years earlier, and a bandito who most likely never existed- his name translates from Mexican Spanish as 'Grumpy Joe', and may have been a catch all to keep the 'Anglos' from persecuting the local Mexican community. Somebody thinks they can track down the treasure, and they're not above killing and kidnapping to get to it.
'Stringer' McKail travels from San Francisco- where he's one of those too-honest-to-be-rich-and-famous newspaper reporters- to Calaveras Countys, where he grew up. Not long after arriving, people are trying to kill him. Soon after that, he meets the first of a string of women who want to sleep with him.
It's all got something to do with a stagecoach robbery fifty years earlier, and a bandito who most likely never existed- his name translates from Mexican Spanish as 'Grumpy Joe', and may have been a catch all to keep the 'Anglos' from persecuting the local Mexican community. Somebody thinks they can track down the treasure, and they're not above killing and kidnapping to get to it.
March 20, 2013
Didn't like the characters, the style or the narrator- couldn't even get through the book.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews