Let me warn you right up front. If you see Whittlin' Walt, just run as fast as you can in the opposite direction. The guy means business and he won't let a little thing like a finger or a life stop him from earning his nickname...Whittlin' Walt.
Now let's get down to the business of these deadly desperados. First you need to meet P.K. Pinkerton who is about to walk in and find his foster parents scalped and lying on the floor in a pool of blood courtesy of that Walt fellow mentioned above. Walt was looking for something.. something worth a whole lot of money and it's just possible that P.K., or Pinky as he is known, might have that something hanging in a medicine bag around his neck.
Now Pinky is on the run to save his own life. Pinky is "real smart about certain things" but he has a Thorn that causes him some real problems and that Thorn is that Pinky cannot tell if a "person's smile is genuine or false" and in a town of swindlers, card sharks, hurdy-gurdy players, soiled doves and Whittlin' Walt and his gang, that's going to be a problem.
Pretty soon Pinky's going to find himself dressing as a girl, packing a seven-shooter, hiding out and learning to read people's emotional states to abet a card-playing gambler.
This story gallops along chock full of twists and turns and sudden shocks. Expect the unexpected and prepare yourself for some eye-popping, page-turning adventure. Not for the faint of heart but definitely for those who love an adventure, a mystery, a good western, and some deadpan humor mixed with the determination of a young autistic boy left on his own in some truly shoot 'em up, smoke 'em up, run your fastest out of town circumstances. Samuel Clemens would approve this rollicking, riotous d_mn story.
Ages 9 and up 279 pages
Recommended by: Barb
