Common Sense Media Review
By Mary Eisenhart
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Tween boy hunts killers in funny, violent Wild West saga.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 11+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
What's the Story?
On his 12th birthday in 19th-century Nevada, P.K. Pinkerton arrives home to find his foster parents, a Methodist minister and his wife, mutilated and murdered in the kitchen. With her dying breaths, his foster mom warns that the murderers want something P.K.'s Lakota birth mother left him, and will soon return. P.K. flees to Virginia City, home to much sex, drugs, and violence at the height of the Comstock Lode silver mania. There he meets con men, thieves, prostitutes, gamblers, Chinese laundry operators, and assorted other colorful characters, while dodging Whittlin' Walt and the other outlaws who want to murder him.
Is It Any Good?
This weird, exciting, and funny Wild West mystery isn't for every kid, but will be irresistible to many. Author Caroline Lawrence (born in Bakersfield, California, and now living in London) previously wrote a bestselling mystery series set in ancient Rome that became a BBC TV series, she clearly has a near-gleeful fondness for historical detail and finds plenty of creative ways to present it in P.K. PINKERTON AND THE DEADLY DESPERADOS. She also creates a distinctive character and narrative voice in P.K.
While the historically accurate setting and Lawrence's narrative skill will give readers an unusually vivid, personal -- and memorable -- knowledge of the period, parents will need to decide whether it's appropriate for their kids, as drunkenness, opium addiction, robbery, brawling, racial discrimination, prostitution, and murder are regular features.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about why stories about the Wild West have been so popular for more than a century. How do the story, setting, and characters of The Case of the Deadly Desperados compare with other Westerns you know?
P.K. can't tell what people are really thinking from their facial expressions. Do you sometimes have trouble knowing whether someone's telling you the truth or trying to mislead you? What clues can you use to help figure it out?
Why do you think the boomtown atmosphere of Virginia City leads to so much bad behavior? Do you see similar things happening today? Where?
Book Details
- Author :
- Genre : Historical Fiction
- Topics : Adventures , Friendship , History
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Putnam Juvenile
- Publication date : February 16, 2012
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 8 - 12
- Number of pages : 272
- Available on : Paperback, Nook, Hardback, Apple Books, Kindle
- Last updated : October 1, 2025
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