TIM CHAMPLIN – The Tombstone Conspiracy.

Five Star, hardcover; First Edition, Sept 1999. Leisure, paperback; August 2002.

   Imagine, if you would, a western novel taking place in Tombstone, Arizona, in which the Earp brothers, Doc Holliday, and the Clantons are all characters — and the O. K. Corral is never mentioned.

   Picture instead a tale straight from The Wild, Wild West TV show. A gang of thieves is running rampant over the territory, responsible for a series of stage robberies netting them a small fortune in silver and gold, not to mention the ambush of an army wagon train carrying a huge load of rifles and ammunition.

   Two men, one an army agent, the other working for Wells Fargo, team up undercover to solve the mystery. What is the significance of the small wooden disks with the unusual emblem all of the captured outlaws carry? Is the more-than-attractive woman who comes between the two lawmen up to no good? And who is the never-seen leader of the bandits?

   This would also have been the basis for a several months’ worth of great Saturday trips to the movies, serial fashion, complete with a cliffhanger ending every week. A nice brew of traditional western fare, that is to say, juiced up a notch or two.