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Summary
Summary
Sheriff Dusty Barnett is prepared for trouble when a traveling theater troupe arrives in Dawson, Arizona, to perform a melodrama, The Phantom Killer. The actors are an eccentric bunch, so Dusty isn't surprised when shooting erupts after one of the actors romances the daughter of the town's doctor. The lawman is shocked when someone wearing a dark, caped costume similar to the one worn by the play's villain robs the stage depot and kills the manager. And when notorious gunfighter Cole Hayes arrives the next day, Dusty learns that Hayes is connected to the troupe and is thrust into a treacherous confrontation with the killer. In the mayhem that follows the murder, the actress playing the ingenue in The Phantom Killer runs off; a young townswoman, Phoebe Martin, creates a town scandal when she takes her place. On top of all that, Sheriff Barnett finds he must also deal with two stagecoach robberies and an angry lynch mob while stalking the mysterious phantom killer, who seems intent on striking again.
Reviews (1)
Booklist Review
Dusty Barnett, small-town sheriff, has a big-city problem: somebody has murdered one of the town's residents. Apparently, the killer was dressed up in the costume of the Phantom Killer, the villain of a play being staged by a theatrical troupe passing through on its way to Tombstone. Dusty, sifting through the various suspects, unearths hidden secrets, motives, and machinations. This is a very clever novel, a traditional Agatha Christie-style mystery re-staged as a western. Clay expertly blends the two (seemingly very different) genres, producing a hybrid that is both a satisfying oater and a suspenseful whodunit. Dusty, the lead character, is a traditional western-sheriff character, but he's also a shrewd investigator; the setting, too, is both familiar (it's a typical small western town) and distinctive (there are a bunch of actors in town, putting on a play). Clay is clearly having a lot of fun spinning his yarn, and it's difficult to imagine anyone who won't have just as much fun reading it. That's especially true for fans of Steve Hockensmith's series starring an Old West version of Holmes and Watson.--Pitt, David Copyright 2010 Booklist
