COYOTE REVENGE

It’s November 1937, which means that both Oklahoma and the young hero of this impressive debut have birthdays looming. Oklahoma will be 30, Okie Dunn 26, and about to experience a rapid-fire series of life-altering events. Hardscrabble Vernon (pop. 700), Okie’s birthplace, where he’s only recently returned, would be difficult to separate from most other small southwestern towns except for an inexplicable rash of sudden deaths. Among these is that of Sheriff Dub Ready, Okie’s oldest friend, who takes two bullets in the back during a community rabbit hunt. Everybody in Vernon knows that ex-pro boxer Okie can handle himself in a tussle and that he’s got some law school under his belt, so it seems natural to pass the badge on to him. And that’s okay with Okie because it gives him license to do what he was bound and determined to do anyway—track down Dub’s murderer. At the outset only banker Marsh Traynor seems a likely suspect, since his hatred of Dub was as unequivocal as it was unconcealed. But Okie knows that Marsh is no back-shooter. He also knows where he really ought to be looking, but when head and heart operate at cross-purposes, things can take a while to get sorted out. You’ll guess the murderer sooner than Okie does, but no matter. An unerring sense of place, fully realized characters, and just plain good storytelling make this venture into fiction by Oklahoma ex-US Senator Harris a debut worth noting.