Annie Oakley in the Ghost Town Secret

    Although I've read this book once before I remember absolutely nothing about it so this will be like reading it for the first time all over again.

    As it starts out we learn that Annie is taking care of her uncle and guardian Luke Mactavish who has recently been shot in the shoulder by one of three trouble makers who have come into town. As Annie is waiting for the doctors daily visit her little brother Tagg shows up with torn clothes and smeared in dirt. 

    

    He tells Annie that while he was out for a horseback ride on their ranch he came across two men camping out. They shot at him which caused his horse to get scared, toss him off, and run away. Tagg finally caught him and hurried home. Annie suggest the men were probably trying to scare him and not actually shoot him but she is worried and decides to check on the men the next day. 

    However when Doc arrives he shares information that the three men, Brink Kincade, Jake Lacey, and Timothy Bannon, are murderers who've broken out of prison. Doc has wanted pictures for all of them and Tagg is able to identify two, Lacey and Bannon, as the men who shot at him. Luke plans on getting together a posse the next day to search for them.

    Doc has also brought out the family's mail and among it is a letter for Annie from a man who claims he had done her father wrong years ago and has something of great value that belongs to her. He asks her to visit him at Signal Buttes. Uncle Luke tells Annie she will have to wait until next month when he can make the trip with her. Since Signal Butted is near a gold town he doesn't feel safe with her going alone. Tagg convinces himself the thing of great value is a gold mine.

    As Luke is riding his horse into town in the next morning Lacey and Bannon spot him as they are heading towards town to break Brink out of jail. Lacey decides to try and shoot the Sheriff but he misses and Luke has time to duck for cover as Annie comes down the road in a wagon. She shoots Lacey's gun out of his hand and him and Bannon flee. Once in town a posse is formed to hunt for the men but they're not found.

    Deputy Lofty decides he better get Brink out to Bonanza City penitentiary the next day to avoid a jail break but Annie suggest they do it that night. They dress Brink up in a long cape and bonnet so Lacey and Bannon, who they assume are watching the jail, won't recognize him when put him in a wagon with Annie who then drives him to the ranch. 

    Luke and Lofty meet up with her there. Lofty is going to take the man by horseback to Bonanza City twenty miles away and Annie suggests she and Tagg go along so Lofty can accompany them on a quick trip to Signal Buttes after. This is agreed upon and they set out.

    During the trip Tagg tells Lofty that a gold mine is waiting for them in Signal Buttes and Kincade, who overhears, takes great interest in this and decides he must get his hands on it.

    After 10 miles they stop for a coffee break and Kincade uses the coffee to wet his leather bonds and stretch them out thus freeing himself. He manages to get Lofty's gun in a scuffle and takes off on a horse with Tagg hostage. Annie's goes after him on horseback and throws her Colt revolver at his head which causes him to drop Loftys gun and break his grip on Tagg. The boy then jumps off the horse and, worried about his safety, Annie stops to check on him, letting Kincade get away.

    The siblings go back to check on Lofty and find his ego is quite bruised. Annie says they can easily go trail Kincade but Lofty insists she and Tagg go straight to Bonanza City and wait for him at the hotel while he trails the prisoner alone. Unfortunately he does not have Annie's tracking skills and loses the trail quickly. Although he knows he should go get Annie for help or go notify the Bonanza City sheriff that there's a criminal lose he instead decides to keep trying to track Kincade alone just because he wants to look like a big man.

    Meanwhile Kincade has luckily run into Lacey and Bannon. Together the three rob some camping cowboys of their guns, money, and supplies then they begin to head for Signal Buttes. Kincade wants to go to steal the alleged gold mine and to get revenge on Annie. Bannon, who is from that area, also wants to get revenge but on a man who he claims helped put him in prison for a murder he did not commit.

    The next morning Annie and Tagg are having breakfast at the hotel when the waitress informs them that the mines in Signal Buttes had flooded months ago and it's now a ghost town. Annie decides it would still be worth going to see if the man they're to meet with is still there. She also decides uncle Luke wouldn't mind the two going alone now that it is no longer a wild gold town.

    Two days later Lofty walks into town in rough shape and says the three men had jumped him and stolen his gun and horse. He tells the authorities the criminals are heading towards the Mexico border and everyone soon gives up worrying about loose convicts being in the area.

    On the first night of their journey Annie and Tagg set up camp in a cave after noticing a rainstorm is on the way. Annie awakes in the middle of the night to her horse making noises. She goes outside to see what had disturbed her horse and notices hoof-prints of 4 horses. She now knows others are within the vicinity but is unaware that the men are the 3 outlaws and a pack-horse. After their camp gets flooded they have continued onward to a cabin. Annie and Tagg travel at a leisurely pace and come across the cabin two nights later.

    Annie hopes to find some friendly prospectors there that they can spend the night with but when they get closer Annie recognizes Lofty horse tied up outside. They retreat and then Annie sneaks up to the glassless window where she overhears the men talking about their plans to rob Silas Akers, the man the Oakleys are going to meet. 

    The sibling have no choice but to keep going for the night. As they pass by the cabin a flash of lightening illuminates the two and Bannon sees them but decides not to tell his two partners because he doesn't want the criminals to hurt a girl and a child.

    Annie and Tagg continue until the get to a river crossing. The river is still raging from the storm and they can't cross it until it goes down so they set up camp under the porch of an abandoned inn next to the river. Annie awakes to the three men's voices. As they are crossing river Lacey injure Bannon's horse causing it to buck him and run off. Bannon falls into the water, hitting his head hard on a rock, and is carried down stream unconscious. 

    Lacey and Kincade happily continue on their way without checking to see in Bannon is alive or not. Once the two men are out of view Annie and Tagg rescue Bannon. They nurse him for a day and night and in the morning he wakes up confused and suspicious. He is hesitant to believe Kincade would abandon him. The siblings feed the young outlaw and Annie sends him in the direction of his runaway horse before continuing on their journey.

    Once they come within two miles of the town they spot hoof-marks which show the two outlaws had been met by someone else before turning in a different direction and the newcomer had gone back the way he came. Annie assumes it was someone coming to tell them they're headed for a ghost town and the men, realizing there was no one there to rob, headed elsewhere.

    Once in the ghost town Annie meets Denver, a former military man who is Captain Silas Akers servant, companion, and friend. Annie and Tagg have supper with the two men but the topic of why he has called them there is not discussed due to the siblings being tired from their journey. Annie and Tagg go to sleep in the cabin next to the military men and during the night Annie awakes to someone trying to get in. With her rifle in hand she sees Tim Bannon walking away, stopping to glare at the captain's cabin.

    The next morning Annie looks around the cabin and finds school book with Bannon's name inside indicating this had been his home. Annie tells Denver about the incident and he tells her she's not to tell Akers anything about it. After supper that evening Akers informs Annie why he asked her there. He tells her he had stolen her fathers medal of honor many years ago out of jealousy and wanted to return it. 

    

    While this is happening Annie looks up and sees Bannon's face in the window, she runs outside and shoots over his head as he runs away. She then tell Akers about Bannon coming to rob him and he tells Annie that Tim Bannon is his adopted son. 

    He had trouble with the law growing up so when he was framed for murder by his two friends Akers believed it and didn't defend him against the law. After Bannon had been taken away to serve a life sentence Denver, Akers, and a private detective had worked to clear his name and find the real murderers. Tim has since been cleared of all charges but has no clue since it happened after he broke out of jail. Akers asks Annie to find him so he can be informed.

    The next morning she locates Bannon but Kincade and Lacey show up before she gets a chance to talk to him. They talk their way out of the fact they had attempted to kill him and then they all make plans to go into the Ghost Town and steal anything worth value that they can find. 

    While Annie is gone Tagg spends the morning talking to Denver who says he's found a secret gold mine in a tunnel that runs above the underground river and therefore isn't flooded. Tagg instantly guesses that the tunnel is under the towns hotel since it's the only building with a Keep Out sign on it. Denver tries claiming he made the whole story up but Tagg doesn't believe him and sneaks into the hotel while Annie goes to inform Denver and Akers about Tim joining back up with the two outlaws. 

    Annie spots the three men sneaking around the ghost town and asks Denver to bring Tagg inside but when Tagg is found missing Denver knows he must have sneaked into the hotel. He informs Annie that he has set up a trap in the tunnel, a pitfall into the river, to protect it from claim-jumpers. Worried that Tagg is about to fall victim to the trap or the outlaws Annie runs down to the hotel.

    Meanwhile the three men are headed to the hotel after becoming suspicious of the Keep Out sign. Tagg runs to hide behind the reception counter as they break in the door but he trips on the tunnel ladder and bangs his head. The men find him as he's returning to consciousness. Annie comes in then and tells them to take off their gun belts. Tagg gathers the belts and is bringing them to her when one falls out of it's holster and goes off. 

    Kincade uses the distraction to wrestle Annie's gun from her then they all go down to the tunnel. With matches they're able to see a pile of gold sitting prettiley on the middle of the ground. Kincade and Lacey start to hurry to it when Annie calls out warning them about the trap. Lacey refuses to believe her and goes down the pitfall but manages to hold on to a rock. Tim runs up to the edge of the trap and calls for him to hold on while they grab some rope. However Kincade quickly bust Tim on the head with his gun and after Tim's unconscious Kincade grabs the gold, threatens to throw the tied up Oakleys into the pit, and says he'll take care of them after going and robbing Akers.

    Tim wakes up and Annie tells him about his father exonerating him of his murder charge. He unties them as they begin to smell smoke; Kincade has started a fire in the hotel. They climb the ladder out of the tunnel and Tim is able to stomp out the fire which isn't catching hold due to the recent storm.

    Once the three run outside a gunshot immediately hits the ground infront of Tim. It's from Lofty and the Bonanza City deputy marshal who are riding into town. Grabbing Lofty's riffle Annie starts taking aim at Kincade who has taken refugee behind an old shed on the path up to Akers cabin. She keeps him covered while the two lawman stealthily head up the trail to apprehend him. Suddenly the tall grass 10 feet from the shed moves. Annie thinks Kincade must be crawling away so she takes aim at the top of the grass to scare him. Suddenly a mountain lion jumps out of the grass and attacks Kincade who runs out and directly into the lawmen's arms.

    Father and son become reunited, a nice supper is had, and plans to start the journey home and reunite with Uncle Luke are made for the next morning.

- At first when Luke's bullet wound is mentioned I thought it was referring to the bullet wound he got in the last book. I was about to be very happy with this continuity but then it explained it was a different situation and that this book takes place a year later.

- I said it in my last review and I'll say it again; the Diablo police force is terrible. It consists only of Luke and Lofty who could stand a lot more training. Although in this book Luke actually deputizes citizens to help look for criminals, it's clear they need more permanent members of the force to do everything that needs doing. 

    For example why is Lofty transporting Kincade alone? This man is dangerous and has already shot the sheriff at point blank range in broad daylight. There should be two men guarding him but if they did that then no one would be in town to handle anything that comes up. 

    Annie is also much more skilled than either man when it comes to shooting, riding, tracking and trailing, and critical thinking. Instead of having Annie help them or teach them they tend to brush her off as a mere woman even though they've seen her in action. Luke can be excused for this because he is her uncle and guardian and often worries about her well-being and does not want her in dangerous situations even if she can handle herself. But Lofty seems to feel personally insulted by Annie's skills.

- The fact that's Kincade tried to shoot Luke, point blank, in the heart is forgot almost immediately. Annie and the others talk about how Kincade is dangerous because he escaped from prison and stole Lofty's gun and horse but it's never once said he's dangerous because he shot the Sheriff in broad daylight in front of witnesses. I find that very strange.

- One thing I couldn't help thinking about is how Tim Bannon is similar to Blair Murdoch of the third Annie Oakley book in that they both are living the life of an outlaw because they falsely believe they are outlaws.

    This was the last of the three Annie Oakley books that I had to read and I'm sad that there's not more. I find these books to be fun and they have a level of action and adventure that tends to be absent from girls' books.

    I stated in my review of Double Trouble that it had previously been my favorite of the three but I would say my favorite now is Ghost Town Secret. Although I like the setting of Diablo I found them being in a new location a lot more interesting after reading two books set in Diablo. Of course I also read the series out of order so if I had read it correctly this would have been the second book and broken up the monotony.