Mavericks

About the book

After a stage robbery, a wounded member of the gang asks his companions to protect two babies and deliver them to safety. The request interrupts the usual calculations of thieves with an unexpected responsibility. Years later, William McGill discovers that the father who raised him was not his biological parent and sets out to investigate the few surviving clues. Meanwhile, a killing in ranch country produces an official verdict that fails to quiet local suspicion. Tuttle brings questions of inheritance and identity into a world of saloons, rival outfits, and disputed accounts of violence. The past matters because its incomplete stories continue to govern living people's choices. Humor and colloquial exchanges accompany a mystery in which belonging cannot be established simply by accepting a familiar name.

• Identity and belonging
• Hidden family history
• Responsibility and violence

Why read it

The opening obligation to two helpless children gives the later western mystery a strong emotional connection to the past.

English serial text from Adventure, beginning December 15, 1929