The Four Arrows Fe-As-Ko

From the opening sentence, Platt creates a convincing voice and point of view for Royal Leckner, narrator of this offbeat, comic western novel set in 1890s Oregon. After rancher Samuel J. Perrault is killed in a freak accident, young foreman Leckner must train the victim's heretofore unknown, mentally retarded son to take charge. The son, Leviticus, is not the foreman's only ``mentally out-of-sorts'' trainee, as Leviticus has three inseparable companions: a female idiot savant, a half-white, half-Indian man who is partially paralyzed, and another man suffering from split personalities (one Union, one Confederate). A crooked trio made up of banker, lawyer and sheriff hope to get their hands on the rancher's fortune if Leckner fails in his mission; indeed the entire town of Idlehour stands to benefit if Leviticus cannot run the ranch. For his part, Leckner can count on a pair of loyal cowhands and a female accountant who hates numbers, with whom he promptly falls in love. How they prevail, learning in the process that even people with ``limitations'' have a place in the scheme of things, makes for a fast, delightful read. Platt brings a rare femaleok perspective to a generally male fictional domain. (May)