DOS Caballos

Dos Caballos is a tiny town in New Mexico Territory, the setting for this tepid frontier western offering more soap than sagebrush. Lucky Smith, so-named for his bad luck, fixes up a broken-down Concord stagecoach he's found in a canyon near town and enters the transport business. This angers stagecoach mogul and all-round black-hat Chunk Wilson. The newly gleaming Concord also arouses covetousness in the heart of Nana, a young Chirichua Apache chief. Meanwhile, Cara Lockhart, daughter of an expatriate Scotsman, Bowen Lockhart, falls for Lucky, as does her brother Cameron for the daughter of the Dos Caballos cantina proprietor, Catalina Carranza (``she of the huge dark eyes''). None of these storylines is fully explored, just resolved, and the stereotypical characters neither say nor do anything surprising. But readers who find potential in the idea of General Hospital set in a frontier town of the 1860s may enjoy Zachary's ( Flight to Freedom ) latest. (Aug.)