cover image The Guns of Peralta

The Guns of Peralta

Richard Clarke. Walker & Company, $19.95 (163pp) ISBN 978-0-8027-1275-2

First explored in Clarke's The Homesteaders , the frontier town of Peralta in the New Mexico Territory provides the setting for this well-conceived, if tepidly executed, western. In 1892, revolutionary fervor in Mexico often spills north of the border and soon Peralta falls victim to a gang of bandoleros . Marshal Lee Custis, a transplanted Texan new to his job, assembles a posse to go after the raiders. In the posse's absence, the women of the town turn the bandoleros away in a bitter fight. On his return, Custis realizes that it is just a matter of time before the gang regroups to launch a renewed assault. The suspenseful premise is undercut by Clarke's sketchy narration, which reads more like a treatment for a screenplay than a fully realized work of fiction. While the plot, filled out by period detail, and dialogue move briskly, Clarke's characters tend to be flat, stock figures. (Jan.)