Hearts in Jeopardy

    With the recent passing of her father Jennifer Courtney is now the owner of the family ranch, Rancho Montana. The change of ownership goes smoothly thanks to Jen's experience helping her father, the trusty foreman Weir, and Larry the new business manager Jen hires. However Jen still looks forward to when her fiancé, Slim Lattigo, will take over running the ranch after their marriage.

    Slim is an extremely talented and successful rodeo star. Although originally awed by his skill Jen has become nervous about his profession ever since their engagement. She worries he will be harmed while preforming dangerous stunts and can not bear to watch his competitions.

    After Slim arrives home from one of his out of town competitions Jen asks him to quit. This leads to a conversation about their plans for the future. Jen had assumed Slim would move in with her and take over running the successful Rancho Montana however he tells her they will be selling the ranch and putting the money into his father's rundown and mismanaged ranch. He then plans for Jen to devote herself to housekeeping for his parents.

    Jen is shocked as this is not the type of life she would ever agree to. Slim tells her it doesn't matter what she wants because "a wife does what her man tells her".

    Although mad Jen gives Slim the benefit of the doubt and assumes he was just exhausted after the long bus ride home. She decides to surprise him by attending his next competition which is being held several hours away.

    After the competition Jen goes looking for Slim at the local restaurant and sees him arrange to meet a beautiful girl at the "usual time, usual place". Jen is shocked as she never would have suspected Slim cheats on her when he's out of town.

    The next day, back at home, she picks Slim up from the bus depot and breaks up with him. Slim does not take it well, first justifying his infidelity and then accusing Jen of having an affair with Larry. He then attempts to sexually assault Jen and when she fights him off he says "You better not try that again! I've got hands, too, and I'm not too nice to beat up on the woman who doesn't play along." He then leaves, saying "you haven't seen the last of me."

    When Slim's younger brother, Andy, applies for a job on the ranch Jen hires him in an attempt to keep friendly relations with the Lattigo family. However after several incidents Andy is fired by Larry when he attempts to beat Starlight, a newborn foal and Jens beloved pet.

    Hearing about the incident Slim heads over to the Rancho Montana and attempts to get Jen to take him back. When she refuses he gets angry and tries to sexually assault her. Jen has to use the newly installed hidden emergency call button that connects to Larry's living quarters.

    When in town Larry is confronted by a drunk Andy who assaults him and, in front of the townspeople, insinuates that Jen had left Slim for Larry. Wanting to defend her honor Larry knocks out Andy.

    This further seems to enrage the Lattigo's who steal Starlight in the night and set him loose in the desert. Unable to find him Larry hires a helicopter to locate and rescue Jen's beloved horse.

    An order for 100 cattle comes to Jen from the Kingston Ranch, the largest ranch in the state. They will have to be herded through a canyon to the train station for delivery however a portion of the canyon is on Lattigo land.

    The Lattigo's refuse to allow the cattle through but since Jen's father had made a legal agreement with Mr. Lattigo to always allow passage they are able to have the police enforce it.

    The cattle drive is a tense one as the group fears the Lattigo's will shoot a gun and cause a stampede while in the narrow canyon which would be deadly to the humans and animals.

    Slim does set off a piece of dynamite but is seconds too late to cause harm as the majority of cattle had exited the canyon at that time.

    After loading the animals on the train Jen, Larry, and Weir head to a restaurant in town but are waved down by Slim outside of it who assaults Larry. Larry beats up Slim and heads home. The police chief tells Slim to leave Jen and the Rancho Montana alone or he will arrest him.

    Jen asks Weir to have Larry meet her at her favorite spot in the canyon. When he does their romantic feelings are confessed. Larry tells Jen he had seen her at a wedding and instantly fell for her but she left before they could be introduced. When he saw her advertisement in the newspaper looking for a ranch manager he thought it would be the perfect way to meet her. It's also learned that he is actually Larry Kingston, son of the owner of the Kingston Ranch.

    The two head home hand-in-hand with plans to soon marry.

- Slim is a terrifying character. After Jen breaks up with him some of her girl friends are interested in pursing him and I felt bad Jen didn't warn them of his pattern of attempted sexual assaults.

- There was a funny part where, after Jen gets angry at Larry for a misunderstanding, Weir tells Larry he should spank Jen to straighten her out. Larry laughs saying he knows Weir doesn't believe in that type of behavior and doubts he ever laid a hand on his wife to which Weir admits he hasn't and that his wife, in fact, is the one that's smacked him around with a frying pan before. It was a nice bit of levity amid the seriousness of characters like Slim and Andy.

- Jen assuming Larry's sister is his girlfriend/fiancé was annoying because it's such an overused thing in romance books.

- The writing for this is pretty amateurish although it's only really noticeable in a few places where some sentences are awkward.

    I wasn't really a fan of the setting because I have no interest in ranching, rodeos, cowboys, etc. but I still found it fairly entertaining and it went along quickly enough. Overall it wasn't that bad at all.

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.

Annie Oakley in Danger in Diablo

    Seventeen year old Annie and her 9 year old brother Tagg have spent the last two months on a wagon trip from the Midwest out to "Indian country" to live with their uncle, Sheriff Luke, in the town of Diablo.

    Towards the end of their journey they stop at a stage to spend the night and overhear someone accusing the sheriff of being in cahoots with criminals. The man accusing this has just been the victim of a stagecoach robbery and claims a prominent citizen of Diablo told him the sheriff will not arrest these outlaws because he is crooked. Annie is shocked to hear this and worries if there could be some truth to it.

    The next day as they are nearing their destination two outlaws, Rube and Rufe Horton, try to steal Annie's horse, Target. Annie is able to capture Rufe but Rube gets away and goes to the office of John Shanley, a wealthy business man who had hired the brothers to rob the stagecoach the previous night. 

    

    The robbery is one of many things Shanley is doing to try and make Sheriff Luke look like a corrupt and/or incompetent man and thus run him out of town. Luke and Shanley have been good friends but Shanley has committed a fraud by selling Luke's land in a newspaper advertisement in Boston, without Luke's knowing. The people who purchased it will be arriving in a few months to claim their land and Shanley needs to gain possession of it before then. Luke has refused to sell it at any price since he will now have Annie and Tagg living with him so Shanley has decided to get it by underhanded means.

    Annie takes Rufe to her uncle who puts him in a cell. He doesn't remain there long however. Rube rides in that night and, under orders from Shanley, helps Rufe escape.

    Meanwhile Shanley has called Dude Rango over from Jumpoff to discuss how to proceed with Luke. Rango advises murdering Luke and then forging IOUs on the land. But Shanley is hesitant to take things that far. He has ordered his spoiled 17-year-old daughter, Edith, home from her vacation from boarding school. He plans to have her act friendly with Annie and try to encourage Annie to want to move away.

    Once Edith arrives Shanley throws a party in honor of Annie hoping he can spend the evening convincing Luke and Annie to let him send Annie to boarding school with Edith. This plan doesn't work as Annie is happy at the ranch. Edith also has requested Annie to wear a white dress to the party believing Annie has no fashion sense and hoping to humiliate her when she shows up in the wrong type of outfit. However Uncle Luke suggests Annie wear her mothers wedding dress which everyone at the party admires. This infuriates Edith.

    Since his plan did not work Shanley has decided to go ahead with Rangos plan and murder the Sherrif. They concoct a plan that will get Luke and Rango out in an isolated spot outside town the next morning. Luke will not tell anyone where he is going but does tell Annie he might soon be able to buy her all the things she deserves.

    Later that day as Annie and Tagg are coming home from a horse ride they spot Rufe Horton making a hasty exist from their house. Annie chases after him but after Rufe shoots at her she loses distance and he gets away. Back at the house the siblings find nothing missing but dirty boot prints show that Rufe had been in Uncle Luke's room.

    Annie feels uneasy about uncle Luke's secretiveness so she goes into town to talk to Lofty about it. While she is in the sheriff office Rango comes riding into town with a slight flesh wound and says the sheriff had shot him. As the townspeople gather around Rango and Shanley, who has shown up, tell their story. They claim Rango was transporting $20,000 for Mr. Shanley and Luke had insisted he go along to guard Rango but once they were out in a desolate area Luke and his gang of outlaws attacked Rango, stole the money, and have ran off.

    Some people in the crowd believe the story immediately due to Shanley's secret campaign against Luke. But others are hesitant to believe the word of a strange against a well known citizen. Annie, of course, does not believe it and goes along with a posse to view the crime scene. There she notes some strange things such as her uncles horses tracks disappearing suddenly. If he had ran off after getting the money there would be a trail.

    Seeing Annie's suspicion Rango claims there's probably evidence at Luke's homes so Annie invites the posse back there to search. In Luke's wardrobe they find a bag from a recent bank heist. Annie and Tagg realize that Rufe had planted it but the men in the posse accuse the two Oakleys of trying to cover for their Uncle. A warrant for grand larceny and attempted murder is made out for the Sherrif and Shanley insists Annie and Tagg come stay with him instead of remaining alone at the ranch. Annie plans on talking to Shanley about Rango credibility that night at dinner but Rango turns out to be a dinner guest. After the meal him and Shanley go into the library so Rango can finally tell Shanley what really happened to the sheriff;

    Once Luke and Rango were out of town Rube and Rufe Horton had been laying in wait to shoot Luke from a distance. However their shot missed and Luke immediately started racing towards them. That's when Rango shot Luke in the back. Luke fell off his horse and rolled over a cliff with a 200 foot drop.

Shanley then has Rango appear to leave for the night but really he is to wait outside by the barn so he can come back later to work on some forged notes that would entitle Shanley to Luke's ranch.

    After a small altercation between Rango and the Oakley's Annie speaks with Shanley, says she doesn't trust Rango, and shares her plans to go to Jumpoff the next morning and make inquires about him. This worries Shanley so he and Rango spend the night forging a letter from Luke admitting guilt to stealing $20,000 from Rango, commiting other robberies, and being head of a gang. The letter also instructs Annie to sign over his ranch to Shanley and ship Annie and Tagg "back to where they came from". The letter is then wrapped around a rock which Rango throws through Shanley's library window. 

    The crash causes Annie to come running and although she still thinks something strange is going on she feels there's too much circumstantial evidence to be able to keep arguing with everyone's belief that Luke is a criminal. She agrees to sign the ranch over to Shanley who will have the papers drawn up the next day.

    In the morning Annie and Tagg are given rude treatment by the Shanley's servants because of Luke's current reputation. They decide to go back home to the ranch and get packed to leave Diablo.

    Once there a wagon pulls up with an elderly couple named Brewster. They've stopped to ask directions and spend some time chatting with Annie and Tagg. They say they've bought some land from Mr. Shanley and have come all the way from the east. They say Shanley had instructed them not to come for several months due to the desert heat but they couldn't wait as they were coming west to help with the husbands medical condition. They show Annie the map with their land and Annie shocked to see it is actually a part of Uncle Luke's ranch.

    Annie decides to go talk to Shanley about this but she finds he still hasn't arrived home so she waits in the library. She ends up accidentally kicking over the wastepaper basket and finds a paper that Rango had used to practice forging Luke's handwriting on. Everything becomes clear to Annie, then Edith barges in. She accuses Annie of snooping, rips the paper out of her hand, runs upstairs and throws it in her bedroom fireplace, then locks Annie in her room. Annie is able to climb out the window by tying Edith's bed sheets together and using it as a rope. Once off the Shanley's property she tells Tagg to go inform Lofty of the situation and have him round up a posse to go look for Uncle Luke. She herself is going straight to the crime scene to try and find him.

    Meanwhile Shanley and Rango have been congratulating themselves on a job well done when Rube Horton knocks on the back door and tells them they can't find Luke's body and that he's clearly still alive. The men head out to go look for him, stopping on the way at Shanley's house where Edith informs them what has happened.

    Meanwhile Annie has arrived at the scene and sees Rube Horton show up and tell his brother Shanley and Rango are coming to help them look. Annie silently follows them down a trail leading over the cliff and is able to pick up her uncle's trail. 

    As she's nearing a large hill covered in boulders and rumble she trips, falls, and lets out an exclamation of pain which echoes all around. Uncle Luke, who is hiding in a well camouflaged abandoned mine shaft, hears and calls Annie to him. As she is telling him about the four men on their way to gun him down one of the Norton's appears in the entrance with a gun on them. 

    Annie is able to kick dirt in his face while uncle Luke clubs him with Annie's rifle. Shanley and Rango arrive just as this has happened and Annie is able to keep them back with her sharpshooting while her and Luke plan an escape through the mine's air-duct. They climb up the narrow opening and on to the hilltop just as they see Lofty and Tagg arriving alone. They evidently couldn't get up a posse and now they're about to walk into gunfire. 

    Thinking fast Annie takes aim at some boulders just as the four men bum-rush into the tunnel. This blocks the entrance and with the air duct entrance also now blocked they head back to town.

    Shanley goes to prison after Rango testifies against him in exchange for a lighter sentence. His house and all it's belongings are auctioned off to pay back the peoples who's money he had fraudulently took. The Brewster's purchase the large house and turn it into a boarding house. Luke is re-elected Sherrif and Annie and Tagg settle into their new home.

- My favorite parts of these books are Annie's sharpshooting. She shoots a gun out of a mans hand twice and the heel off a mans boot.

- I'm not sure Luke or Lofty should be working in law enforcement. Even though they're being set up they still kind of suck at their jobs. Luke complains there's too much crime happening at once for them to catch it but he doesn't bother to enlarge the police force to more than him and Lofty, even though the Governor has encouraged him to deputize more people.

- There's an error on page 231. The town of Jumpoff is called Diablo.

- When Annie smells cigarette smoke by the Shanley's barn she thinks of Rango because he's the only one in Diablo who smokes cigarettes. But the next day when she sees the burnt out cigarettes by the barn ground she can't recall who she remembers smokes cigarettes.

    When compared to the last Annie Oakley book I read, Double Trouble, I would say this one is better in terms of story telling and action which surprised me because the last time I read these books I thought Double Trouble was far superior. 

    However a problem I've had with this book both times I've read it is the fact that we, the reader, are aware of the situation going on from the start but are helpless to watch Annie fall right into this trap. It's very frustrating and little stressful, I actually had to put the book down several times because of it.

    But that is just a personal problem and without that the book is actually quite good.

Annie Oakley in Double Trouble

    Seventeen year old Annie and her little brother Tagg live in the town of Diablo with their Uncle Sheriff Luke. Annie is not a typical teenage girl, she is extremely smart, brave, and talented when it comes to the outdoors. As a child she was taught by her Colonel father how to shoot a gun with precision, how to track in all settings, and how to defend herself.

    As our story starts out Annie is getting ready for the day. The local school teacher has eloped leaving 8 year old Tagg with an extended vacation. Although Annie is eager for him to continue his studies she agrees to let him have some fun and takes him out to a stream to pan for gold. While there she hears a gun being fired and upon investigation sees a stagecoach being held up on a nearby road by two men, one short and mean and the other tall and somewhat polite. 

    Annie knows that Deputy sheriff Lofty is coming in on that coach with an envelope containing some very important papers for her uncle regarding local criminals. When the men take the papers Annie knows she needs to step in. With the help of Tagg she sneaks up on the men and shoots a gun out of the tall man's hand who then flees. While Lofty wrestles with the short man over possession of his gun she takes after the tall man, he reaches where their horses are and Annie jumps on one of the bandit horses and continues to follow. She makes a clean shot at the mans reins and he goes flying off the horse and becomes unconscious. While Annie is grabbing something to tie him up with he is able to sneak off with both horses. Lofty and Tagg soon arrive with Annie's horse Target in tow so she won't have to walk all those miles back.

    At the sheriffs office the short man, Adams, is refusing to talk but the lawman are convinced he'll be willing to talk in a few days when the Tumbleweed Wagon arrives. The Tumbleweed Wagon is a prison wagon that goes around from town to town collecting criminals from the jails and taking them to prison in which ever large city it winds up at.

    Meanwhile a lady from the stagecoach holdup is sitting at the hotel lobby awaiting for her brother to arrive. Blair Murdock had found an ore claim and sent for his sister, Melinda, to come to Diablo to join him. She had sent him a telegram confirming her arrival date but Annie soon finds out the telegram had never been received. Unaware where her brother is and with all her money having been taken during the hold up Melinda doesn't know where to go. Annie invited her to be a guest at their home while Uncle Luke gets her appointed as the new school teacher.

    Over at the saloon we're introduced to Tex Chantry, a card sharp and confidence man who would be much desired by authorities if they knew who he was. His picture was among the papers stolen from Lofty in the hold up. With the help of Sam Gillis, who works at the hotel, Tex was able to learn about the incoming papers and hired some outlaws to steal them. Tex and Sam now have to break Adams out of jail before the Tumbleweed Wagon shows up.

    The next morning Sam gets up early and heads out to Halfway House, a notorious outlaw hideaway. There he meets with Bill Welton, the tall outlaw Annie had chased after. He trades $200 of gold dust for the envelope. After he leaves Bill goes inside and while talking with the cook we learn that Bill Welton is a man with no past. Not long ago Adams had found the stranger Bill unconscious from a bullet wound to the head. He carried him to Halfway House where him and Cook nursed him back to health. Bill has suffered amnesia from his injury and the only way he knows his name is because Adams had found a wanted poster for an unpictured man named Bill Welton folded up and pinned inside the unconscious mans shirt, along side a bag of rich ore. They assume it must be him. Bill is very grateful for what Adams has done for him and is determined to not let the man be taken away in the prison wagon.

    Back in town Sam hands the envelope over to Tex who promptly picks out his wanted paper, burns it to ashes, and makes it clear the matter is over to him meaning he does not plan on breaking Adams from jail.

    Annie has been busy trying to help Melinda track down her brother. She goes to the newspaper office to see if the editor has heard anything about a Blair Murdock and unfortunately he had. He shows Annie an article he had published two months ago which tells how the horse Blair had rented wandered into town alone a week after Blair had left on it, with an Indian arrow still embedded in the saddle and the saddlebags slashed and empty. Blair had apparently been attacked and killed. Annie and Uncle Luke show this to Melinda but she remains hopeful that Blair is still alive.

    A "sociable" is being thrown at the schoolhouse to welcome the new teacher. Tagg is instructed to read a poem the rude Mrs. Gillis has written. After fumbling it he runs out of the party in distress. Annie goes to find him and ends up seeing Bill entering the sheriffs office and realizes it's a jailbreak. 

    She sends Tagg back to the schoolhouse to alert their uncle then runs over to the bandits horses and loosens the saddles. When the outlaws come out they fall off the horses who then bolt. Both men are captured and put in jail. Everyone from the sociable has ran over to see the excitement including Melinda who recognizes Bill as Blair. That night she sneaks out to the jail while wearing one of Annie's riding outfits to find out what Blair is doing. He insists he doesn't know her or who Blair is and she ends up having to make a hasty exist when Lofty hears her. He sees her running off and mistakes her for Annie. Adams then decides to stir up trouble by pretending it was Annie coming to talk to him. On the ride home Melinda is also spotted and mistaken for Annie by Mrs. Gillis who is eager to spread this bit of gossip around.

    While Melinda is out Tagg has come into Annie's room to tell her he heard the horses acting up and can see from his window that the stable doors are open. Annie goes out to close them just as Melinda arrives home and the truth comes out about Bill being Blair. Melinda asks Annie to not tell Uncle Luke otherwise it will get around town and she will lose her teaching position.

    The following day is Sunday and Mrs. Gillis wastes no time in spreading her fresh gossip. She tells everyone Annie seemed to be up to mischief the previous night but after one woman accuses Essie of trying to stir up trouble she doubles down and tells everyone she has inside knowledge that Annie was up to no good. She of course has told her husband Sam about it and he becomes convinced that Annie, Bill, and the Sheriff are working together. He tells Tex who decides the only way to keep Bill from talking is to break him out of jail. 

    Sam sets a fire in an abandoned stable and while everyone is distracted he slips a gun to Adams through his cell window. Annie was left in charge of the jail while her uncle is helping with the fire. She's used the time to talk to Bill and almost has him convinced he's Blair when Adams pulls the gun on her and both prisoners escape.

    Annie tells her Uncle about the escape while he is among all the men who helped put out the fire, including Sam. Sam then loudly announces he believes a gun must have been slipped to the prisoners during the night and remarks that Annie had been in town late last night. Privately Uncle Luke admits he knows it was really Melinda out last night but the rest of the town appears to have become suspicious of Annie.

    Now that the truth has come to light about Bills real identity things have changed between him and Adams. Adams now is suspicious of him and desperate to get his hands on Blair's ore claim which Blair had promised him half for saving his life. But unfortunately Blair still can not remember it's location and Adams is losing his patience. Blair realizes that he's now in a bad situation because if he tries to leave the Halfway House he won't get far before he is caught and brought back as a captive. So he is pretending to stay friendly with Adams but hoping he can get in contact with Melinda.

    Annie remains bothered over Sam Gillis trying to make her look bad among the townspeople so she decides to talk things over with him. She goes to the hotel but is told by Jake that Sam has gone fishing at Lost Lake. Annie is suspicious of this since Lost Lake has become dried up. Jake also tells Annie Sam left his fishing pole and then shows her where Sam has been doodling his name as "Sheriff Sam Gillis". He also informs her that Sam and Tex have become thick as thieves.

    Meanwhile Sam is out at Halfway House again after being instructed by Tex to try and find out where Blair's ore claim is. Him and Adams harass Blair trying to get him to remember and when that doesn't work they force him to write a letter to Melinda trying to get any information from her that they can.

    The letter is left outside the schoolhouse for Melinda. It instructs her to bring the letters she has received from Bill to a road outside of town at sunset. In a hurry to do this she rides off from the school forgetting to bring Tagg with her. She's also left in such a hurry that she did not lock the schoolhouse. Seeing this Tagg goes inside to get the spare key from her desk, sees the note, and decides to bring it home to her.

    He gives the note to Annie when he gets home and since she can see the signature is from Blair she decides to read it. She's concerned Blair wants to see Melinda to tell her he is going to keep up his life of crime so she decides to go see if she can convince him to turn himself in.

    When she arrives at the road she finds Melinda's horse and buggy alone on the side of the road and quickly sees signs of a struggle. After studying the footprints she deciphers that it was most likely Adams and not Blair who had taken Melinda against her will. Since uncle Luke and Lofty are gone for the day Annie knows she has to follow the trail to find Melinda at once as night is quickly approaching. 

    

    Tagg soon shows up on his horse begging to come along which Annie allows. They follow the tracks down an old, out of use road which leads down where Annie had chased Blair after the stagecoach robbery. She's long suspected this leads to the outlaws hideout. In the distance she can see a horse with two riders and knows she's on the right track. 

    Soon she hears hoof beats approaching from behind and quickly pulls her and Tagg off the path and behind some boulders. Sam and Tex go riding by and as they pass Tagg's horse snorts and stamps. The men continue on but up ahead they hide off the side of the trail to see who had been spying on them. As Annie and Tagg approach Tex draws his pistol but Annie had already seen the marks where the men had stopped and realizes they're about to be ambushed. She grabs her rifle and, with Tagg, jumps off behind some rocks on the other side of the trail. 

    When Taggs hat gets blown away he reaches out for it and Tex shoots him in the arm. Thinking that Annie will be too busy with Tagg to notice them, they get out of their hiding spot and ride on. However Annie quickly sees the bullet has only grazed the skin of Tagg arm so she quickly puts her attention back on the two men and with precise aim shoots at Sam's hat which flies off his head. Tex and Sam's horses then go flying off but Annie makes sure to grab the hat, which has Sam's initials inside, as evidence. 

    Annie wants to turn back for home but once Tagg realizes he's not severely wounded he is eager to continue on. He's actually quite thrilled and proud that he has been wounded while enforcing the law. They head on but after a bit Tagg becomes woozy and Annie finds he has developed a fever. 

    Annie is able to locate a small cave that appears to have been previously used by a prospector; inside it contains a blanket, firewood, a pickax, and some canned food. There they hunker down for the night.
Meanwhile back in Diablo uncle Luke has arrived home and finding everyone gone and the horse and buggy sitting out in the yard he becomes worried. He waits up the night and at the first sign of day light he heads out to town asking if anyone has seen any of the three. Here he finds out Sam and Tex are also missing.

    The next morning Annie and Tagg continue on the trail and spot Tim, the lookout. Annie is able to use a rock and her bandanna to knock down a hornets nest from above his head which sends him running to Halfway House. Annie and Tagg can then go past and come upon the house. After hiding the horses deep in the woods Annie approaches the back of the house where she see Melinda come out to a well with a bucket. She gets a hold of her and sends her into the woods before confronting Cookie who has come out to see what's taken Melinda so long. 

    He, who likes Blair and can't stand Tex, tells Annie to get her and Melinda as far away as possible as fast as possible because some of the men inside would be delighted to kill her. He then goes back inside and pretends Melinda has run off. Tex doesn't care saying she'll either come back by night or get killed by an animal. They bandits then grab Blair and head out to some unknown destination. Seeing this Annie tells Tagg to get Melinda to the cave they had slept in then hurry to Diablo to get Uncle Luke and a posse. 

    Annie is able to speak to Cookie again who tells her Tex is taking Blair to be set up in a gun trap; he'll be tied to a tree with a gun tied to a tree across from him. The gun will be tied with strips of fresh deer hide which will shrink as the sun dries it out thus pulling the trigger. Annie hurries in the given direction and finds Blair tied up and Sam keeping watch over him. She shoots down the gun which causes Sam, who is terrified of Annie and her skilled gunmanship, to run but she shoots in front of his feet which stops him. She then has him untie Blair and hand over his gun then march him back to Halfway House where she surprises Red and Adams.

    Tagg makes in back to Diablo and a group heads out towards the hideout and wrangle up Tex, Adams, and Sam who are placed on the Tumbleweed Wagon the next day. The next day Essie Gillis also flees town out of humiliation.

    Luke and Annie go with Blair to the county court to testify on his behalf and a judge exonerated him of his crimes during his brief stint as Bill Welton. And of course Blair finds his ore claim; it was the cave Annie and Tagg slept in.

- It's pretty obvious that Bill is actually Blair. I wish that it wasn't so obvious because I think it would have been a great reveal. Although I'm typically not a fan of amnesia driven plots I do think this one is interesting since Blair has taken on an unfavorable identity.

- It's stated that Annie wears a long split skirt for riding her horse and this just seems so uncomfortable and impractical to me. So I looked it up and was very surprised to find that not only did women wear these split skirts but they were actually considered somewhat scandalous. Women riding astride was not considered decent so wearing clothes especially made for a woman to ride astride was definitely considered in poor taste by some. Women would typically wear ankle length skirts to ride side saddle but if they were going to ride astride they would wear either a split skirt or pants underneath a skirt. I wonder how many women at some point said screw it and threw on a pair of their father or brothers pants to go riding.

- No mention is made of what becomes of Cookie so I guess we can assume he went through with his plans to pack up and move along after Annie corners Tex and Sam. He's an interesting characters because he's very kind and wants to help Blair escape from Adams but worries about disrupting his quiet life at Halfway House since he's a wanted criminal. On one hand you like him because he is compassionate, dislikes the bad guys, and helps Annie. But on the other hand you have to wonder what terrible crimes he committed that made him have to disappear from the world and live in isolation at Halfway House.

    I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book. I enjoyed it a lot more the first time I read it but I did still enjoy it this time too. I read it faster than I've read a book in awhile. I recall thinking it was the best out of the three Annie Oakley books Whitman published so I'm not sure how I'll feel about those when I re-read them. 

    Also, although this book was nice to read I've found myself horrifically bored re-reading my summary. Maybe I'm just a terrible writer but I don't normally find the book summaries so tedious to read. I think it may simply be that the action in this book does not fair well when condensed so much.