The Trick Shot - Hardcover

The Nevada gold camps during the early years of this century are the backdrops for vaudeville and violence in Cummings's 13th western novel (after The Last Lawman). John Drake is a trick-shot artist in a traveling show who accidentally kills his fiancee during a performance. Driven by grief, Drake flees into the Nevada desert to wallow in remorse. Meanwhile, three escaped convicts kidnap a beautiful young Indian girl, Henie, and eventually cross trails with Drake, who then pairs up with Henie's brother, Tagee, to rescue her. This is a comical partnership, for Drake is mired in self-pity and Tagee is a greedy and arrogant caricature of the loyal and stoic Tonto. In the expected gunfight with the convicts, Drake and Tagee free Henie, get shot and still manage to leave two bad guys lying in the lava beds. The gang leader is wounded, but escapes. Henie nurses Drake back to health and stands by him when he becomes an unlikely town constable. Drake's gun nerve returns, and he builds his trick-shot confidence with some fancy self-defense killings. Show business soon beckons, however, and Drake, with Henie, rejoins vaudeville, where danger and redemption await them at their first performance. Marked by flat dialogue, unresponsive emotion and lackluster action, this is a melodramatic horse opera with a low pulse rate.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

John Drake is a trick-shot artist, traveling the Old West with fiancee Molly as his assistant. One day something goes awry, and Drake kills Molly. Later, overcome with grief and living in an Arizona ghost town, he finds an opportunity for redemption in the form of a Paiute Indian woman held captive by three outlaws. His first attempt to intervene on the woman's behalf fails, and he sets out after her tormentors on foot. On the trail, he partners up with the woman's brother. What follows is a typical cat-and-mouse chase made unique by veteran author Cummings' ability to create three-dimensional, identifiable characters. The best of the bunch here is bad-guy ringleader Shaw, who brings a curious and unpredictable sense of morality to every situation. A solid yarn from the always dependable and enjoyable Cummings. Wes Lukowsky