In THE TEXAS JOB, Reavis Z Wortam turns back the clock on one of his Red River characters, Texas Ranger Tom Bell. Set during the early 1930's Texas, Ranger Bell is tracking a criminal when he first sets eyes on the oil boom's PineTop, Texas. Just as when gold was discovered in California, the discovery of oil in Texas and Oklahoma brought all kinds of people looking for an easy fortune.

I love Wortham's westerns. While The Texas Job may be set in the 1930's, it still has all the flavor of a great western. I'll definitely add this series to my TBR shelf.

I really enjoyed this one! I don't read too many western type thrillers but this also worked in a mafia element and was quite wild and crazy. There is a character that is carried through from another series, Texas Ranger Tom Bell, and I really liked him. It is set when oil is booming, and people are dying in a small Texas town. Turns out there is a whole lot of corruption going on, and once Tom Bell gets to the root of it all, it gets dangerous for him too. The ending was very satisfying, and while this was a little slow to start, the rest was very fast paced and satisfying!

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the digital copy to review.

THE TEXAS JOB by Reavis Z. Wortham is novel that takes place in theTexas oil boomtown years that created a situation not unlike the gold rush years that took place earlier in the west and Alaska, where the lure of easy money attracted predators who saw an opportunity to reap the rewards obtained by taking from hardworking individuals and families the money, land, and mineral rights by criminal means, and the need for investigation of the crimes by a Texas Ranger who has recently arrived in town.

Tom Bell has arrived in town to locate a fugitive who might be in the area and benefiting from the chance to hide under an alias, and to continue his criminal activities without detection.

Soon after his arrival, Tom happens upon a body of a murdered woman and injures a hidden gunman who escapes after being shot by Tom with a small caliber bullet from a .22 rifle carried by the young man who led him to the location of the body.

Tom finds that there is criminal activity in the area that is not being investigated by local law enforcement, so in addition to his search for the criminal he’s after he starts digging into what is going on and who is directly involved with the aid of the young man he’s met upon his arrival.

While making his investigations, he also finds himself attracted to a woman who has waited on him in the local diner, and a relationship with her helps bring him out of the lonely state he’s been in since the death of his wife.

Can Tom find out who is at the top of the criminal ring that is responsible for the crimes taking place that have resulted in the murder of several locals who illegally take money, land and mineral rights by doing so, and can he do so without causing harm to himself and the few in town who are involved with him?

I really enjoyed this book as I have several others by the author that take place in Texas, most of them in more modern settings, but recommend this one to anyone interested in a novel that takes place in the depression era environment of Texas in the midst of the oil boom years.

4.5 stars.

This book has “Texas Ranger” Tom Bell going to East Texas looking for a killer. What he finds along the way is a town that is full of corruption as men are killing off the local Indian tribe after marrying them in order to own the rights to the oil that they own. This part of the story is very similar to the Osage Nation where owners were poisoned, there is a book about it and it is very good. Anyway, back to this book Tom Bell who is shot at a few times because he is getting close to finding out the truth is also more determined after his female friend is killed.
Even though the story takes place in Texas the author has also brought in Hot Springs Arkansas one of the hideouts for gangsters back then. The story will keep you entertained with plenty of action and suspense. There are many good characters, even the bad guys are good characters. A very good book and really entertaining and worth the read.

This is the first book I have read by this author and after reading the author's notes, apparently, Texas Ranger Tom Bell has other books that he is featured in and you could say this is like a prequel to those books.

In this book, Tom is chasing a murderer from the valley and ends up in East Texas. I don't think I realized it when I picked up the book, but since I lived for some time in Longview, I am familiar with the area even though it would have looked much different in the 1930s. I was fascinated to learn that Liberty City was previously called Hog Eye until the oil boom. I had to chuckle at the name of the town, but there are small towns all across this country with unique names.

Set during the oil boom, this book showcases human nature and that they weren't that much different than people today by scheming and deceiving landowners, killing, prejudice for those even a little different from them, gangsters and prohibition. This book gets into the nitty-gritty of life in a small shanty town and had me spellbound imaging life nearly 90 years ago. Life was not easy because there was also the depression which made some people greedy that much more as we saw from various characters.

I really like Tom Bell and how seriously he took his position as a Texas Ranger. It was not an easy job for him or anyone else, but they made it work somehow. I thought the details painted a picture for us to imagine what life was like in this area at that time. The towns exploded with oil derrick workers and I can imagine law enforcement was stretched thin trying to keep everything peaceful. It was not an easy task for anyone. Those that were of ill repute were going to wreak havoc no matter what and those scenes had my heart pounding wondering how things were going to shake out for Tom.

This is a fascinating book and one I enjoyed immensely. We give it 5 paws up.

The texas job by Reavis z Wartham.
A Case Lee Novel Book 9.
"Texas Ranger Tom Bell is tracking a fugitive killer when he rides into Pine Top, a hastily erected shanty-town crawling with rough and desperate men-oil drillers, come by the thousands in search of work. It soon becomes apparent that the lawman's poking around has irritated the wrong people, and when two failed attempts are made on his life, Bell knows that he's getting closer to finding out who is responsible for cheating and murdering the local landowners in order to access the rich oil fields flowing beneath their farms. When they ambush him for a third time while he's out with a local woman he's fallen for, they make the deadly mistake of killing her and leaving him alive"--
A good read with ok characters. Didn't have any favourites. 3*.

The Texas Job by Reavis Z. Wortham

Set during the depression, this book has the feel of a dime novel or perhaps pulp fiction. It feels “of the time” and the time of the story is early 1930’s. Set in a booming oil town during the heyday of a new era filled with men wishing to rake in the money…oil towns seemed to have the same feel as old gold towns.

Tom Bell, Texas Ranger, is on horseback chasing a criminal when he meets eleven-year-old Booker Johnston who takes him to a female corpse. Tom and Booker become friends of sorts over the course of the book as Tom realizes that something isn’t quite right in Pine Top. An era with horses and automobiles both on the roads, good people being pushed aside by those ruthless enough to take what they want, bigotry and racial discrimination rampant, social divides prevalent, prohibition and speakeasies the norm, mafia types on the move, corrupt cops getting away with…a lot, and murder aplenty – well, this story is action-packed, filled with colorful characters, dark, and gritty.

The Texas Rangers are doing their job but it isn’t always easy. Being a good person in Pine Top might not see you alive till the end of the book…and being a bad person might have the same ending for some of the book’s characters, too.

This is a novel that will appeal to those who enjoy vintage stories with bigger than life characters, a bit of feel-good here and there, good vs evil, and a bit different flavor ovreall. It was not exactly what I thought it would be but was great for what it was meant to be…or what I think it was meant to be. I do believe I would read another book by Wortham and am glad I read this new-to-me author’s work.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poison Pen Press for the ARC – this is my honest review.

4-5 Stars

For anyone familiar with Reavis Wortham's Red River mystery series, the name Tom Bell will be a familiar (and welcome) one. Bell is an old man in the 1960s setting of the Red River mysteries, but The Texas Job shows him as a young man in 1931 with more than a touch of Wyatt Earp-like invincibility.

Wortham aptly describes the boomtown sensibility of Texas oil fields, of everyone out to make as much money as fast as they possibly can. And where there are boatloads of fast money, there are boatloads of outlaws, from petty criminals all the way up to the gangsters of organized crime. These are the days of Pretty Boy Floyd, of Ma Barker, John Dillinger, and Bonnie and Clyde. The Texas Job gives readers shootouts and ambushes and twisted, evil plots to grab control of the rights to all that oil and money. And if all that sounds a bit far-fetched, I'd suggest a little additional reading... David Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon, for instance.

But if this sounds like too much action and not enough setting and characterization, think again. The opening scene of The Texas Job is beautiful and lyrical. Wortham paints such a vivid picture that I easily found myself on horseback riding along with Tom Bell. Yes, there is beauty to be found in this book, as well as love, kindness, greed, and ugliness.

And then there's Tom Bell. A man who has to think on his feet in order to stay alive. A man who doesn't see skin color, and as a result meets unforgettable eleven-year-old Booker Johnston, and Booker's friends and family. The bad guys in this book are the types you love to hate, and you want to see them come to bad ends, but it's Bell's interactions with the marginalized there in town that bring a smile to my face and make the story come to life.

If you're a fan of Wortham's Red River mysteries, you already know you have a treat in store for you in The Texas Job. If you haven't made the acquaintance of Tom Bell, there's no time like the present. You're not only going to like him, you're going to want more.

Texas Ranger Tom Bell has barely ridden into the outskirts of the East Texan town of Pine Top when trouble comes looking for him. Flagged down by a local kid who claims to have found a dead body, Tom is, of course, obliged to investigate, never mind that he’s there on a mission to apprehend a wanted killer named Clete Ferras. The kid, Booker Johnston, leads him straight to a woman who’s been shot to death out in the brush. While finding her was certainly unexpected, an even nastier surprise is in store for Tom and Booker when someone starts shooting at them while they’re examining the corpse.

Tom returns fire, catching sight of the shooter only long enough to confirm that it isn’t Ferras, before getting himself and Booker safely out of harm’s way. In town, he reports the murder and assault to local Sheriff J. L. Dobbs, whose fine duds speak to a lack of willingness to get his hands dirty. Sheriff Dobbs half-heartedly accepts the report, and half-heartedly directs Tom in the direction of the oil rigs that have sprouted up like mushrooms in the East Texas rain. Plenty of roughnecks have come looking for work with the region’s recent oil boom, and Dobbs declares his certainty that Ferras will be among that crowd if he’s in town at all.

Shrewdly deciding that Dobbs isn’t going to be a whole lot of help, Tom deputizes young Booker and his friend Hut Parsons, and has them give him the lay of the land in addition to running small, safe errands for him. Since the first prospector struck oil, Pine Top has gone from being a quiet farming town to a place of easy money and uneasy development, filled with rigs and newcomers looking to capitalize off of the area’s newfound wealth. Finding Ferras could feel like searching for a needle in a haystack even with a competent sheriff on Tom’s side. Fortunately, he has some help in the presence of fellow Ranger Enrique Delgado, sent earlier to bring order to the worst excesses of this boomtown. Unfortunately, Pine Top has a far more insidious criminal problem than either Tom or Enrique anticipated.

For Ferras has fallen in with an unsavory element determined to swindle the local small landowners out of their holdings or worse. After paying one hard-bargaining cotton farmer a reasonable price for his land, Ferras is informed by his cohort that all kinds of bad things can happen to down-on-their-luck farmers and their families:

QUOTE
“What kind of things?”

“Well, I read in the paper here-while-back that a man killed his wife and kids, then himself when he realized he’d lost the family farm and they were going to be living in a tent camp somewhere.”

“Killed ‘em all, huh?”

“Yep. Shot ‘em every one and then burned the house down on them all. Happened out there around Guymon, Oklahoma, I believe.” He and Ferras exchanged a knowing look. “Come out here and get that cash back tonight, and I don’t care how you do it.”
END QUOTE

Ferras has proven himself willing to kill more than once already, but will Tom be able to stop him before he adds even more victims to his body count? As Tom tracks down his man, he discovers that the operation Ferras is involved with reaches further than he ever imagined. The Ranger is ready to dismantle the whole cabal, but what price will he be willing to pay to do so?

This is a really terrific Prohibition-era Western that examines a chapter in the life of fan-favorite Ranger Tom Bell as he seeks to bring justice and the law – but mostly justice – to boomtown Texas. I can see why Tom is so popular, inclined as he is to treat people fairly regardless of their skin color or social class. He’s just as capable of using his wits and charm as his guns, and is determined to stop evildoers without becoming one himself, no matter how tempting the situation. All this is written in a visceral, almost cinematic style that feels truly immersive, especially in Tom’s viewpoint chapters:

QUOTE
A second man, twice as large as the first, ducked back out of sight, allowing the third to step forward and raise a Colt .45 semiautomatic. Thunder rolled from the big pistol as the stranger pulled the trigger as fast as he could, apparently hoping that a steady stream of lead would overcome my response.

Flashes like lightning filled the room, freezing the action in a sequence reminding me of a flickering picture in a penny arcade.
END QUOTE

This atmospheric Western had me feeling like I was back in 1930s America at that particular comingling of wildcat oil boom with speakeasy glamor. It was a fun ride with a stellar cast, whose emotional setpieces moved me more than once. Based on true events, books like The Texas Job entertain while also showing how far we’ve come as a society, as well as how far still we need to go.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy!

If you like old Texas/western themes, 1930s depression-era studies on human behavior, lone rangers and old-timey thrills, or if you didn’t even know you’d like those, THIS book is for you! The Texas Job was expertly written and full of thrills set in a gritty and wild setting that added to the suspense and rawness of the tale. What a ride!

I’m predisposed to be a big fan of historical mysteries set in unusual places or times, and The Texas Job qualifies on both counts – I’m definitely unaware of any other mysteries set in the 1930-ish early days of the East Texas oil boom! Reavis Z Wortham’s prequel (of sorts) to his Red River series is really enjoyable both for its detailed, but never boring, background, and for its Western-themed plot: a solo lawman, usually with some issues/past of his own, rides his horse into a town with problems and fixes said problems, often at considerable personal loss to himself. Although this is sort of a standard trope, there’s a reason tropes are tropes – they work. And this one in this author’s hands works really well.

As the story opens, a young Tom Bell, who appears much later as a retired Texas Ranger in the Red River books, is looking for a fugitive murderer. But he soon tumbles into much more. While he’s riding his skittish rented horse into the oil town of Pine Top, a young mixed-blood boy tumbles out of the woods and tells him there’s a dead person a mile or so off the road. With the boy’s help, Tom finds the body, but the death is dismissed by the local sheriff with the excuse that the woman is “just an Indian”. From this small beginning, things start moving. Shady characters tend to gather where there’s easy money to be had, and Pine Top is no exception. Mobsters are after the land, or rather, the oil under the land, and somehow Bell, and the young boy, and Bell’s new girlfriend, end up in the middle of it all.

The Texas Job is a thoroughly engaging blend of historical mystery and western, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes either! It’s well worth the five-stars I’m giving it. The only downside some readers might find is that the casual racism and violence can be a bit tough at times. I suspect, however, that they are representative of the time and place, and I settled for being quite glad I didn’t live there then. I also really appreciated the Author’s Note at the end, which provided additional background – and also a bit of fun insight into the author’s book-plotting methods. (If it’s that easy, though, why couldn’t I ever come up with plots when in Creative Writing class?) And finally, my thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for the advance review copy.

East Texas in 1931 is a rough place, as Texas Ranger Tom Bell learns when he arrives in Pine Top. He's looking for a murderer but he finds more than he expects when he's shot at almost immediately, There are good guys and bad guys, corruption, abuse of power, and so on. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It's a good, well plotted read that hopefully marks the start of a new series.

The year is 1931, and Texas Ranger Tom Bell is hunting a killer in the Texas OIl Boom town of Kilgore. What he winds up uncovering is an organized effort to grab oil-rich properties by any means necessary, with ties that go all the way to the Chicago mob. Perpetuating the "One riot/one ranger" mythos, this is a hard-hitting, action-packed thrill ride you won't soon forget!

Early 20th Century east Texas was a wide-open territory and Texas Ranger Tom Bell has a very dangerous job. The mob has infiltrated the area because of quick riches from the discovery of oil. A forest of oil rigs blight the once open range and forest lands. Where money flows, greed and corruption closely follow.

The mob though has no compassion for people, their problems or their needs. They take whatever they can. Author Wortham weaves a very interesting tale of bravado and heroism against wanton killing and conniving.
The weapons and attack methodology were reminiscent of WW I war tactics. The mob sent in large groups to “take care of the problem,” Ranger Tom Bell being one of those “problems.”

Segregation was rampant in Texas at that time. The African American youth were considered slightly less valuable and African American women were considered ignorant and generally ignored. Therefore, Tom had a ready source of intelligence because the criminals gave them little consideration.

I found his tale engaging and entertaining. His writing style harkens back to western authors of old. The characters who became Texas Rangers were smart and cared for the people of east Texas.

Enjoy this tale from a gifted writer. Set aside time because you will not want to put the book down. 4.5 stars – CE Williams

Great book, by an author I will read more of! Thrilling plot, great writing and brilliant characters. Highly recommend to others.

I had not read previous books by this author and was not aware that the MC had appeared in previous books, though this one takes place prior to the events in previous books and can be read as a stand alone. In 1931 Texas Ranger Tom Bell is heading to Pinetop Texas in pursuit of a fugitive murderer, just before arriving he's stopped by a young boy who tells him there's a dead body down by the river. As they are investigated someone starts shooting at them. Tom shoots back and the shooter leaves, Tom and Booker (the young boy) head into town to let the Sheriff know of the body, the Sheriff says he'll send someone out to get it. Tom insists that the victim, a young black woman, was murdered, the Sheriff doesn't seem concerned. Tom and Booker become a bit of a team, Tom calls him his Deputy and gives him small tasks to do. Tom eventually discovers that Pinetop is a dangerous place to be, not long after he had arrived, a couple of men take shots at him in his hotel, he's ambushed on a lonely road and his questions on the fugitive he's pursuing lead nowhere. Tom is a resourceful guy though, though he's outnumbered every time he's attacked, he manages to kill all the attackers and avoid serious injury. Pinetop is a boomtown, oil has been found and the oil rigs are everywhere, and corrupt people are as well, The author does an excellent job of making you feel what it was like to live in that era and the historical detail is spot on. A very good book, I would recommend. Thank you to #Netgalley and #Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC.

I have been a fan of Reavis Z. Wortham since I first read The Rock Hole, the first book in his Red River series and later I fell for his Sonny Hawke series. Now he takes the retired Texas Ranger Tom Bell from the Red River series and tells his story back in the thirties when he was a young active ranger. The Texas Job is the first book in what I sincerely hope will be a new series with many exciting adventures with this great character. Wortham is a wonderful writer, I have compared him with James Lee Burke regarding his Red River series. This one is not that dark but it is a bleak reality he describes in this book. We have the financial difficulties with both the depression and the oil boom. We also have the prohibition and a not yet civilized rural Texas. The characters in this book is wonderful and the setting is masterfully described. I love the attention to details and will recommend this to anyone who will listen to me. I must thank @netgalley @poisonedpenpress for giving me this advance copy and @reaviszwortham for writing this book. #TheTexasJob #ReavisZWortham #Netgalley #PoisonedPenPress

I’m still not entirely sure whether to call Reavis Wortham’s The Texas Job a standalone novel or a prequel to his Red River series because, really, I can see it qualifying as either. The novel’s main character is Texas Ranger Tom Bell who, as an old man, plays a prominent role in The Right Side of Wrong, the third book in the Red River series. That book is set in the mid-sixties when Bell proves that he still has a lot of fight in him despite his retirement from the Rangers. The Texas Job, on the other hand, brings Bell up into East Texas from down on the southern border in 1931 and gives readers the chance to see what he was capable of in his prime.

Tom Bell is only in Pine Top at all because he believes that the murderer from down in south Texas he’s been tracking may be hiding there. But even before he makes it all the way to the newly created shanty town, Bell - with considerable help from a young boy he meets on the trail — stumbles upon the remains of a woman whose dead body had apparently been hidden there days earlier. As a harbinger of things to come, Bell soon finds himself in a shootout even before he can make his way to local law enforcement officers to report what he’s found.

Pine Top, you see, is more boomtown than it is shanty town. Oil has recently been discovered in East Texas and the area is overrun by hundreds and hundreds of men and women looking to make a quick buck out of the discovery. That not all of them are concerned about making that money legally, is an understatement. The people who should be becoming rich, the ones who own the land on top of the oil, are in more danger than they realize. They are sitting on top of the kind of fortune people can only dream about, and some in town are willing to kill to get their hands on it. Tom Bell has no idea what he’s just ridden into, but he’s about to find out.

Bottom Line: It is always easy to get caught up in the historical period during which Reavis Wortham sets his crime novels, but this one is especially fun for readers curious about what a Depression Era oil boomtown must have been like in the day. Unsurprisingly, it was much the same as the gold mining boomtowns most of us are probably more familiar with, and Wortham captures all the inevitable chaos, greed, recklessness, and lawlessness common to this kind of race to get rich before others beat you to it. The Texas Job is a version of the classic tale in which a lone lawman rides into a corrupt town and, with the help of a few good townspeople, does everything he can to clean up the mess he finds there. It may be a classic formula, but Wortham is a good storyteller, and he handles it well.

A sweeping tale of corruption, greed, racism and madness set in a East Texas boomtown during the Depression, the story of an urban anthill teeming with lots of unscrupulous schemers, underhanded cheaters, bold liars and shameless drunks performing their evil deeds within a malevolent spiderweb awashed with towering oil derricks and the deafening din and nefarious fumes they never cease to produce. The main character in this magnificent novel is a winsome and rather fearless Texas Ranger on a hunt for a depraved killer and his adventures & misadventures as he painstakingly tries to destroy the ruthless network of criminal shenanigans that ensnares that urban behemoth.
The Texas job was my first encounter with the brilliant prose of Reavis Wortham. Just like Joe R. Lansdale, he is a fantastic wordsmith and he knows how to bring East Texas vividly to life. But luckily for us, he is also very talented when it comes to choreographing all the violence on paper. Just like Lansdale he knows how to hook your attention from the beginning and he never gives you any reprieve. Last but not least all the amazing characters and harsh settings that inhabit his gorgeous storytelling endows it with a vivid, almost cinematic quality. A fabulous discovery that definitely deserves to be enjoyed without any moderation whatsoever! Now I will start looking for other titles from this terrific writer!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen for this incredible ARC!

The Texas Job by Wortham gives readers a view of East Texas in 1931 when a huge oil field has been found and towns are exploding with people, oil wells, and the good and bad that came with it. Texas Ranger Tom Bell is tracking a fugitive murderer. He is examining a dead body before going into town when someone shoots at him. That is the start of an exciting time in this area of Texas. From a sheriff of the boomtown PineTop to the roughnecks working for the oil companies, no one offers him help. In fact, he obviously ruffles some feathers, and multiple attempts on his life occur. As he tries to find the murderer, Tom uncovers more crimes are happening in and around the town. Will he live to solve the cases?

Tom is a young Ranger in this novel and his sense of duty and desire for justice comes through in his character which has more depth than I expected. Interspersed in the narrative are insights into his young history of serving in World War I and dealing with the loss of his wife. This delivered realism and empathy that made him more relatable. Several of the supporting characters had distinct personalities that made the story even more interesting.

The author did extensive research on this period of Texas history during the Great Depression and the oil boom, but also in Oklahoma when oil was discovered under land owned by the Osage Nation, and it shows. While this is not a traditional 1800’s western, it does have similarities with a lone lawman going up against criminals in a good versus evil story and set in a historical period. The writing is descriptive without slowing down the vivid and action-filled plot. This feature created atmosphere that elevated the story line. Readers will rapidly turn the pages and learn about daily life and conditions in boomtowns during the beginning of oil drilling in that part of Texas. Themes include murder, attempted murder, corruption, racism, power, and more.

The action starts out strong, moves at a fast pace, and the suspense continues to build throughout. The author brought a strong sense of place and time to the events in the book. The action somehow managed to seem plausible for the times even though it was definitely extreme. I could easily visualize the towns, the people, the unsanitary conditions in the temporary camps and tent cities, the landscape, and the inability of infrastructure to keep up with the booming population. One thing that stood out for me was the concerns over water and air pollution that showed up even in 1931.

Overall, this book was an engaging and action-filled crime thriller in a historical setting that kept me turning the pages. This is the first book that I have read by this author but it won’t be the last. I highly recommend this novel to those that like his crime thrillers.

Poisoned Pen Press and Reavis Z. Wortham provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. This is my honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way. Publication date is currently set for February 15, 2021. This review was originally posted at Mystery and Suspense Magazine.