McKettrick's Choice

The highly enjoyable latest volume of Miller's popular McKettrick series stars older half-brother Holt McKettrick. Learning that his former Ranger partner, Gabe Navarro, is on the way to the gallows on trumped-up charges and that his foster father, Buffalo Soldier John Cavanagh, is about to lose his land, Holt ditches his mail-order bride at their Arizona Territories altar and rides off to Texas. In San Antonio, he meets a lively lady named Lorelei Fellows, who has just called off her own wedding and burned her bridal gown in the center of town. Thrown out of her father's house, she's hoping to pick up some cattle and start a small ranch of her own. Holt thinks she's out of her mind, but he revises his opinion after watching Lorelei learn to ride a mule named Seesaw, play a cutthroat game of poker, and all in all start to look mighty delectable. Cavanagh's land will be fine and Navarro won't hang—but is Lorelei out of the frying pan into the fire? Her father dies vastly indebted to the landowner who had framed Navarro. Strong characterization and a vivid western setting make for a fine historical romance. Agent, Irene Goodman . (June)