The bounty hunter Lou Prophet wakes up in bed with a soiled dove to find a penciled note deposited in the dove’s cleavage.
“We have the girl. If you want her back in one piece, ride to Santo Domingo Station.”
Prophet rides out to the abandoned stage station to learn that his beautiful partner, Louisa Bonaventure--“The Vengeance Queen” herself--has been kidnapped and locked away in a snake-infested mine shaft. To get her out alive, Prophet must do a job for the kidnappers:
Bring them the head of Melvin Badthunder!
Can Prophet hunt down the savage border bandit in time to save his comely partner’s life?
On the trail of Melvin Badthunder, Prophet rides to the little desert town of Muleville to find not only Badthunder but that, as always in a Mean Pete yarn, nothing is quite as it’s supposed to be...
Boy, that's the truth. Mean Pete packs several very nice twists into this story to go along with the great action scenes. This is the last thing I read in 2012 and the first thing I'm reviewing in 2013, and it's a fine way to both end and begin a year. I've read all of Brandvold's short stories and they're always well-written and very entertaining.
And speaking of those other short stories, they're all available in one volume now, and that one gets a high recommendation from me as well.
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