Reviewed by Taylin
This is a Series Review of The Pinkerton Man Series (Books 1 – 3)
AUTHOR: C.J. Baty
PUBLISHER: Self Published
SERIES REVIEW:
It’s not often that I pick up a series, let alone a Western, but being familiar with this author’s other works, I gave it a go. And I’m glad I did.
Three stories of varying length have been written so far. Even though one story leads into the next, and knowledge of the previous story is an advantage – each can be read as a standalone. The coherence between the three is a personal one. With each new instalment, relationships grow more profound and more meaningful.
The Pinkerton Man series is more than the sum of its parts. Individually the stories are unique and entertaining, but with specific elements that make them unique – allowing each of the main characters to have their time in the limelight. However, when read as a whole, they cover everything the west was all about.
The main factors that gave me a positive experience was that; firstly, there’s no frillying around. Each story gets to the point, and there’s action from the start. Personal stories develop with each chapter of every story. Secondly, I couldn’t guess whodunit ahead of time. Sure, I had my suspicions, but twists, turns and misdirection’s, are expertly woven together. What’s even better is that the door has been left open for more in the series
SERIES RATING: 
TITLE: The Pinkerton Man
LENGTH: 216 Pages
RELEASE DATE: May 28, 2017
BLURB:
BOOK ONE: THE PINKERTON MAN
Stiles Langberry leaves England under the dark cloud of blackmail. He resettles in America with a new name, becoming a Pinkerton Agent. His new employer sends him undercover to a brothel that serves homosexual men, where prostitutes are being murdered.
In the course of his investigation, he becomes involved with Paul, one of the prostitutes. Complicating matters, one of the suspects draws Stiles like no man before him. Stiles knows he must stop the killer before he strikes again.
BOOK TWO: HOME ON THE RANGE
Pinkerton Agent Stiles Long is sent to the Circle W Ranch to uncover who is killing the ranch’s cattle. In order to discover the truth about the goings on at the ranch, Stiles has to prove to the ranchers he’s more than a good-looking city slicker.
Savage Beare, the head ranch foreman, is far from happy that Stiles is there to check things out. He has secrets of his own. Stiles finds Savage incredibly good-looking, but cold and aloof. He’s also a suspect. One of many.
When Stiles’ best friend and partner, Lizzie Ferguson, is kidnapped things begin to shake apart. Stiles doesn’t trust anyone and he needs to find Lizzie before it’s too late
REVIEW:
Book One of the series, contains two stories. The Pinkerton Man, and Home On The Range.
The Pinkerton Man is an introduction to the main characters, the agency, the genre and the type of tale that will be told.
Stiles Langberry was a constable at Scotland Yard. His inheritance, too, made him comfortably well off. A blackmailing incident ended his London life in favor of the USA. He also left his name behind, becoming Stiles Long. En-route, he forms a lifelong friendship with Lizzy, who like Stiles, prefers her own gender to love. The two join the Pinkerton Agency.
Stiles’s first case involves the murder of three young men from a brothel. One of which catches Stiles’s eye – Paul. Stiles must go undercover to find the perpetrator.
Told from Stile’s pov, The story is short yet entertaining. I especially liked the saloon brawl. However, there’s the odd independent body part, and some scene’s are written passive rather than active. There is also a short flashback not identified by an alternate font, which took me a couple of false starts to realize.
What I liked was the method of storytelling. There was no messing about, no-frills or getting to the point by the long route. It was detailed where it needed to be, with a show rather than tell ethos in the important parts. AND Hail Mary – there isn’t a bitten lip or ‘come for me’ anywhere – YES, BRAVO. I also liked the imagery provided of the era and sights. It gave me what I needed without going into unnecessary finite detail. The heat rating, too, is high. Given that the case revolves around a brothel, it isn’t surprising, with an M/M/M, threesome topping the lust factor. What it does identify is that Stiles is an incredibly sexual man, and out west, he had plenty of eye candy.
There are some cases you win and some you lose. It was good to read that not all eventualities have a happy ending. Therefore, the repercussions of this story follow to future tales.
Home On The Range is the longer of the two stories. It involves some poisoned cows on a ranch. Stiles and Lizzy go undercover to find out who and why. There are lots of suspects. There are secrets to unfold. Some relate the crime some don’t. To this end, the story is like a Poirot investigation. There are little clues along the way with the big reveal at the end. It’s an aspect of this author’s style that she does very well.
Given the length, is it punchy, in your face and no-nonsense. Everything a short story should be. It isn’t subtle. There’s a stampede, bullets flying, punch-ups, and blood. Also, there’s no such thing as making love. Sex is fucking to scratch an itch, with not an intimate word muttered.
Book one has a high sex content. Some will love it some won’t, but what it proves is that in cowboy country they work hard, play harder and get sex where they can. There was a lot that I liked about this first instalment. While grammatically, it wasn’t perfect, to me, it encompassed everything I imagined parts of the wild west would be.
RATING:
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TITLE: Murder In New York
LENGTH: 182 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 24, 2018
BLURB:
Coming back to New York to see her ailing father, Lizzie Ferguson did not expect to find him healthy and newly married to a much younger woman. She, also, didn’t expect to connect with an old lover and childhood friend or be accused of killing her father. But, life has a way of knocking you to your knees when you least expect it.
Stiles Long had always regretted that the killer, from his first case as a Pinkerton Agent, had got away. Now, in New York it was happening again. The Hotel Astor Bar was a meeting place for men who enjoyed the company of men. And, some of them were being brutally murdered. When one of the suspects from the original case appears at the hotel, Stiles is torn between his desire to stop a killer and kiss the man senseless.
Two different cases, but some of the faces overlap from one to the other. Stiles and Lizzie are in a race to discover who the killers are before another body gets added to the count.
REVIEW:
Book two is set in 1907. Stiles and his friend Lizzie have gotten quite the reputation for getting the job done. When Lizzie gets a message that her father is ill, they relocate to New York. Once there, they find that the message was a ploy to get Lizzie home and hopefully married off. Even more of a shock to Lizzy is the discovery of her father’s new wife. Lizzie is not a happy bunny.
In the meantime, the Pinkerton NY office needs their help. Bodies of young men have been appearing bearing startling similarities to Stiles’ first case – the one that killed Paul. Stiles takes the lead on this one, but he is distracted when a face from novel one makes an appearance, Michael O’Leary – the man who instigated the threesome with Paul.
In this instalment, there are two investigations and as they are in the blurb I won’t be revealing any spoilers when I say one is the murder of the young men, the other is the murder of Lizzy’s father. Some characters have a part to play in both cases. Lizzie and Stiles may have moved from the rough and ready ranch setting to the finery afforded to New York’s elite, but there are rats in quite a few closets.
Lizzy has a much more significant role to play in this novel. Her preference for women and her strong character come to the fore. I loved every word of dialogue that she uttered.
The story is told in the third person. Murder In New York is an altogether more subtle offering, but no less exciting. It’s a story of mind games instead of bullets and steers. Technically it isn’t perfect. There’s the odd independent body part, and some passive rather than active scenes. Also, I know the third person is supposed to omnipotent, but pov is still vital. In this book, it occasionally strays, stating facts, about a character without actual evidence from whoever’s viewpoint they’re in, which made me think ‘How did they know that?’. Some readers will get caught up on these, but the fact remains that this is still an intricately woven story and a good read.
The story contains old-fashioned pomp and values that were the norm for the era. 1907 was a time when a woman was not to have a thought that wasn’t her husbands. Lizzy broke that tradition, and it was lovely to see. As for Stiles, he is not only chasing a murderer but experiencing something foreign to him – the possibility that he’s in love.
Sex isn’t as frequent in this story as it has been in previous ones, and it remains only M/M. However, it is more loving and meaningful.
The farter I got into the story, the more exciting it became. I have purposely not mentioned some drama’s and angst moments because that would be giving the game away. Nevertheless, it was a pleasure to be kept guessing until the whodunit scenes. There is the classic, someone in this room is a murderer, attempted murder, wrongful accusations, actual murder – there’s a lot of death. Laced between them are mind games, elements of BDSM, frustrated cops, suicide, love, sex, and secrets.
RATING: 
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TITLE: Aces Up
LENGTH: 312 pages
RELEASE DATE: June 25, 2019
BLURB:
Stiles Long emphatically did not want his lover, Michael O’Leary to go on the assignment he had been given. He didn’t care that Michael was an amazing poker player or that his commander thought Michael was the perfect man for the job. He almost lost Michael once. He couldn’t go through that again.
Michael needed this. He needed to prove that he was able to take care of himself. He didn’t need Stiles to take care of him. He needed to be Stiles’ equal. The poker game in Durango, Colorado was his chance to prove that. The fact that Stiles didn’t want him to go didn’t matter. Michael had to do this.
Lizzie Ferguson was Stiles partner in the Pinkerton Agency. She was a good agent. That didn’t mean, she had to like being dressed in satin and lace, showing way too much of her body to total strangers. Lizzie knew there was more going on at Maverick’s Saloon, and it might just cost her life.
None of them suspected that a simple poker game would turn into a deadly nightmare. If the three of them weren’t careful, one of them might just end up the next victim.
REVIEW:
Stiles is a nervous man. His lover Michael has become an agent for Pinkerton’s and is about to embark on his first case. Michael’s past includes some successful poker games. The Pinkerton agency is utilizing this to send him undercover as a player at a high-stakes poker game at the Maverick Saloon in Durango. Stiles will be there, too, as official Pinkerton security, and Lizzy will be undercover as one of the saloon girls. In theory, guarding a lot of money and ensuring fair play, should be simple, but with the Pinkerton’s involved, something is sure to go wrong. Stiles’ life isn’t helped either when – on the job – Michael will be a look but no touch. Yeah, I don’t think he’s going to be able to stick to that.
With each story, the drama has ratcheted up a notch, and Ace’s Up is no exception. I loved the film Maverick – it’s one of my all-time favorites, and it’s impossible not to make comparisons. This story is different, but it has a couple of similar elements, namely card game and western.
After rumors of dodgy dealing had customers leaving in droves; Birdie Maverick came up with the idea of the tournament, to bring back the crowds. The buy-in – $10,000. But murder is afoot, and no one is what they seem.
The story is told from the viewpoints of Stiles Michael and Lizzy in the present tense. It is longer than the others. As such, there’s more of … well… everything. Most of the characters are introduced to the reader on a train on route to Durango, and this is where the action also starts.
Aces up is my favorite of the stories so far, not only because of the subject matter but the way it’s put together. Among the card players, there’s everything I hoped from a card game set in the west. However, there are also multiple murders. All the agents have their hands full, and there are superb twists and turns as to who is good and bad.
In the previous stories, the crimes are obviously separated. In Ace’s Up, it has the feeling that there is one big crime, but there’s a twist there, too. Adding to the drama – Michael and Stiles’ lives are also threatened. With each story, their romance has progressed. They have graduated from fucking to making love. Added to everything else, it makes this story physical as well as emotional.
RATING: 
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[…] to find him healthy and newly married to a much younger woman. She, also, didn’t expect to connect with an old lover and childhood friend or be accused of killing her father. But, life has a way of […]