Blood Kin

Hired gun Seth Strummer, on the lam in 1880 and headed to El Paso to kill his brother's murderer, meets Johanna Devery in the desert. Disguised as a boy, Johanna is running away from a sadistic stepfather who has given her an ultimatum: she must marry the man who raped her or go to work in the family-owned bordello. After Seth figures out that ``Joe'' is a girl, his loveless gunman's life is never the same, even after he learns that Johanna's stepfather is in business with his enemy. Avenging them both, Strummer leaves a wake of dead bodies; but then, with the Texas Rangers even hot on his trail, he decides to give up his newfound love in order to must decide whether to keep her with him or save her life. With an ear finely tuned to for dialogue and a keen sense of plot, Fackler ( Barbed Wire ) portrays her cast well, depicting in Strummer a likable, stoic hero. Short chapters and graphic scenes of brutality give her story cinematic punch. (May)