Penguin.com (usa)

Custis Parker Long is a Deputy U.S. Marshal operating out of the Federal District Court in Denver, Colorado, around 1880. He's known to friend and foe alike as Longarm because he is, simply, the Long Arm of the Law. He's also one of the only honest men in an era of corruption—where vigilantes are rewarded, robber barons are king, and judges can be bought for the price of a good meal. Above all, Longarm respects his duty as a U.S. Marshal. He'll arrest anyone and everyone he has a warrant on—he'll apprehend a corrupt sheriff in his own office and posse be damned. If the man he's after is in jail, Longarm will bust him out. Nobody's about to hang one of Longarm's targeted men before he can see him stand trial.

Longarm is a rustic knight in armor with a twinkle in his eye, and he's never afraid to spill a little blood and break a few hearts in the name of the law. In more than 300 installments of the series, he has carried his particular brand of justice the length and breadth of the West, has been to hell and back...and is not afraid to go there again.

• Longarm is above all a gentleman—but he's not afraid to get dirty.
• He has an iconic handlebar mustache and smokes five-cent cheroots.
• He drinks his red-eye neat, but never gets drunk.
• He plays cards for small stakes, and isn't above a little friendly cheating.
• Armed usually with a short-barreled Colt .44 Lightning, Longarm also carries a long-barreled Winchester and keeps a double-barreled Derringer hidden away for emergencies.
• Longarm has dispatched all manner of ne'er-do-wells: pirates, bandidos, cult members, mounted marauders, hellcats, even a mythical Indian beast...and always comes out on top.