Raylan Givens is one cool lawman. I'm not talking like he's a "hep cat"" or a "righteous dude," as he seems rather "square." No. I mean this man has ice water in his veins. For him, High Noon would have been a casual stroll down Main Street. He's not afraid to go gunslinger on any man, confident his nerve and skill will leave him breathing oxygen instead of dirt once the shots have been fired. I learned this reading Pronto, and it was cemented after Riding the Rap.
I like Raylan, but he always seemed out of place in Southern Florida amongst the Palm trees and sun. Throughout Fire in the Hole, it's constantly mentioned that he was born 100 years to late, and I guess it's true that he would fit in on the streets of Tombstone, but I've been waiting for him to go back home, to East Kentucky.
Raylan is home, helping out a fellow local Marshall. He wants an old buddy of Raylan's, Boyd Crowder, who has crowned himself king of a local white supremacist movement. Boyd's been ignoring his income taxes for years, and they are ready to bring him it yet again, but fear his new found Aryan brothers might give them trouble.
Raylan loves trouble.
While Fire in the Hole is an excellent story, I couldn't help but feel it would have made a better book. Sure, we've had a few with Mr. Givens already, but Boyd is such an interesting character that it's a shame to have him only appear in this 50 page short story. In fact, the entire town would have been a welcome place to set a story.
Thankfully, as I commented on yesterday, FX was kind enough to give Raylan a chance to stretch out his legs in Kentucky, expanding this story into the show Justified.
Now if we can just get a crossover with Karen Sisco.
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