Mayhem at Buffalo Bill’s Wild West: A Jemmy McBustle Mystery

Amis’s busy sequel to 2013’s Jack the Ripper in St. Louis follows 18-year-old would-be journalist Jemmy McBustle on a trip to Sedalia, Mo., in the fall of 1898. Her hope is to get a hot story about Buffalo Bill Cody’s magnificent tent show, especially an interview with crack-shot performer Annie Oakley. Jemmy is frustrated by overzealous surveillance from her chaperone, Aunt Tilly, and by most men’s smug refusal to take her seriously. Beyond these annoyances, however, Jemmy realizes that someone is taking potshots at Buffalo Bill’s troupe, prompting her to commence a vigorous investigation that includes thwarting robberies, encouraging a timorous young wife, and searching for a missing friend—besides pursuing a dangerous lunatic. Jemmy herself is likable though easily flustered, but the historical setting and the Wild West show itself are of more interest than the helter-skelter plot. [em](Feb.) [/em]