Posted by Splay on June 19, 2004 at 21:25:32:
Mr. Omega has cooked up a short-order murder mystery and served it up Texas-style with all the trimmin's--the strangled beauty, the worthless sheriff, the nervous barkeep....
This story has a completeness about it that is quite remarkable in such a brief piece; the rather cursory plot hangs together enough to carry the reader through. Tone and character are consistent throughout. And the Old West eye-dialect is right on the money.
The writer did nap a bit here and there, though. For example, the unconscious anachronism "wannabe" hit a clinker, and I was puzzled to find the town of Abilene following the protagonist down the streets of Amarillo.
All in all, "Amarillo" is pleasantly diverting--an inventive and not-unskilled twist on the strangled-babe yarn.