The Adventures of Johnny Vermillion
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Johnny Vermillion's theater troupe brings masterpieces to the Wild West. The four actors are versatile enough to wear many costumes and play many roles. A few props, a little makeup, a costume and--voilà--applause on the rugged frontier.
Johnny also arranges a special attraction for each town. While his actors bustle in and out of costumes, on and off the stage in many roles, one plays the villain in the bank. Then the actors take their curtain calls and railroad away.
Who? Us? Rob a bank? But you saw all of us on stage. When could we have done that?
A Pinkerton man becomes the troupe's severest critic: He notices the news reports of stage performances one day and bank robberies the next. He follows the troupe, packing his suspicions. Finally, he sets a clever trap.
Loren D. Estleman's The Adventures of Johnny Vermillion features one of the most entertaining rogues ever to turn a dishonest dollar. Any audience will love a troupe that can transform A Midsummer Night's Dream into grand larceny.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Every one of Estleman's more than 50 crime novels and westerns (Port Hazard, etc.) offers suspense, action, humor and plot twist, with the westerns all refreshingly devoid of formula horse opera antics. This one, set in 1873, is even funnier than most. Led by a handsome and charmingly slick con artist, Johnny Vermillion, the Prairie Rose Repertory Company performs Shakespeare onstage, and robs banks offstage. They are masters of disguise and role-playing and are more tricksters than anything else, but they've unwittingly cut in on the turf of Black Jack Brixton's Ace-in-the-Hole Gang, a murderous bunch who vow to wipe out their criminal competition. A resourceful Pinkerton detective gets on the trail of both outfits. Of course, four-time Spur Award winner Estleman ensures that the actors, the outlaws and the detective will converge at the same location, in a final showdown filled with laughs and gunsmoke.
