[Taggart Roper Mystery 01] • The Victim

Freelance Western writer Taggart Roper (more free than lance lately) lives in a rusting trailer in a seedy Tulsa suburb with his dog Harry. Sometimes Roper takes on not-quite-legal odd jobs to pay the bills, but the young Sarah Lawrence student who interrupts his morning harmonica practice hires him for the oddest job yet. Looking into a recently murdered local prostitute's past leads Roper straight to the estate of a rich and famous television evangelist. But what was the connection between the preacher and the prostitute? What does the reverend's mother know, behind her steely mask of propriety and piety? And why does a group of born-again karate freaks and body builders want to scare Roper off the case? Roper doesn't know what to think, but with the help of his Cherokee lover Rita Ninekiller and Wiley Harmon, the crookedest cop on the Tulsa PD, he's going to find out - or become the killer's next victim.