Though it features characters from 2001's Code of the West, a rollicking Arthurian tale set in 1880s Texas, Latham's latest novel has little of its predecessor's excitement, suspense or humor. Instead, a posse of colorful characters wander around within a lackluster, loosely woven plot. Revelie Goodnight (read Guinevere), the widow of Texas cattle baron Jimmy Goodnight (King Arthur), is raising her son, Percy, aka Pyg, to be a proper gentleman in Boston. When Revelie learns her lover, Jack Loving (Lancelot), has been shot, she and Percy return to the sprawling Home Ranch (Camelot) in Texas. En route, a tough, sassy farm girl named Jesse attaches herself to the pair, to Revelie's disgust and 17-year-old Percy's licentious delight. Once back at Home Ranch, Revelie realizes she has secrets to hide—one from the Texas law and two others from her son. While Revelie nurses Jack Loving, and Pyg and Jesse get busy in the barn, somebody steals Jimmy Goodnight's tombstone, in which the "ax that had made [him] a Texas legend" (Excalibur) is imbedded. Pyg, determined to recover the tombstone to see if he can pull the ax from the stone, rides off with a posse of loyal cowboys and Jesse, after outlaws, scofflaws and other undesirables. Flood, fire, cattle fever, locusts, snake bites and gangs of killers are in the way, but Pyg and the cowboys are bold and audacious saddle pals determined to win their prize. Despite a lot of action and banter, and a very funny scene in a Texas brothel, this shoot 'em up misses its mark.(Aug.)
