In the hardscrabble desert of the Nevada Frontier, 12 year old P.K. Pinkerton has trouble understanding people. But that’s not what’s causing P.K.’s troubles today: desperados have killed P.K.’s foster ma and pa, searching for a priceless letter: the deed to the Motherlode of silver being mined in the untamed town of Virginia City. How P.K. came to have the letter and how the desperados found out about it are just two of the mysteries in Book One of The Western Mysteries, The Case of the Deadly Desperados, by Caroline Lawrence.
Fleeing from Whittlin’ Walt and his cruel gang, P.K. finds there’s really nowhere to hide in Virginia City, a lawless town full of miners, gamblers, soiled doves, gunmen, and countless others all there to make their fortunes at any cost. P.K. is forced to don various disguises, rely on quid-pro-quo “favors” from more than one shady character, and skulk around to stay one step ahead of the desperados in order to get the letter to the Recorder’s office to take claim of the vast fortune of the mines.
Lawrence effectively builds tension throughout this fast paced, accessible, short-chaptered mystery. The Old West feel is rich, villains are deliciously villainous, and the setting and characters are perfectly combined to launch a detective series that is sure to delight both boys and girls. I was captivated by an interesting interlude in the action when P.K. is with gambler Jace learning how to interpret human behavior. The observations on body language were fascinating and made P.K.’s personal struggle with emotional intelligence feel real. Lawrence doesn’t ever clearly say, so the reader has to assume that P.K. has some kind of autism spectrum disorder, but the skillful way it’s handled throughout the book only adds to P.K.’s humanity as a character. Kids will enjoy P.K.’s determination, the action, mystery, and tension of this story and will surely look forward to more adventures in a town rich with shady characters, greed, and murder.
- Posted by Cori
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