Tackett & the Teacher

Republican Party strategist Nofziger ( Tackett ) returns to fiction with this strained second volume of a projected trilogy about a ``wandering cowboy and jack-of-all-Western-trades.'' The straight-talking, fast-shooting narrator encounters a mess of trouble when he rides into Abilene to visit schoolteacher Liddy Doyle, daughter of his gunned-down friend. For Liddy has inherited $50,000 and half-ownership in a silver mine from her dad, making her prime prey for Crispen Giucy, the town tyrant. But before the homicidal Giucy can get his hands on Liddy's deed, it's stolen by her erstwhile friend Ada Venn, who, posing as Liddy, heads for Denver to claim ownership. Tackett and the teacher chase her on a rough-and-tumble journey that sees Ada strangled, Liddy kidnapped and Tackett jailed, shot and nearly poisoned twice. Maintaining the action at a brisk canter, Nofziger overplays some broad jokes while trying, not too successfully, to humanize his protagonist. Fans of the genre will find this sagebrush yarn leaves them a mite saddle sore. (Apr.)