P.K. Pinkerton and the Deadly Desperados: P.K. Pinkerton, Book 1

The book opens with P.K.'s discovery of his murdered and scalped foster parents in the bloody kitchen; his birth parents were previously killed in separate incidents. Other characters also meet violent ends; the murderers who pursue PK take other victims, and someone cuts the throat of a prostitute. Gunplay and brawling are common, and even the school bully's after P.K.

A conversation with Poker Face Jace reveals that P.K.'s familiar with sex as a concept from watching animals mate, but thinks the same activity between men and women is just stupid. P.K. spots a man and a woman "bouncing up and down on the bed." "Soiled doves" are prominent characters: "When I asked what a Soiled Dove was," P.K. recalls, "[Pa] said it was a low-class woman who sparked men for pay.... I asked him what 'spark' meant. He said it meant to kiss & cuddle. He was going to tell me more but then Ma shushed him." When dressed as a boy, P.K.'s pursued by a girl who wants to kiss him; when he's dressed as a girl, he's pursued by boys.

P.K.'s writing the story, and when some characters use a swear word, he writes it as "D-mn!" P.K. and other characters routinely use words ("Chinaman," "chop-chop!") that were common in the 19th century but are considered racist today. A villain calls a female character a "filthy Hore!"

Dying foster mom Evangeline makes P.K. promise to avoid hard liquor; P.K. prefers black coffee. Other characters are seen drinking in saloons; drunks are part of the boom-town landscape, and robbers prey upon them. Virginia City also has a thriving opium-den scene, and one of the characters (who has robbed P.K. to get money for drugs) is described in a drugged haze after smoking opium. A doctor gives P.K. laudanum (alcohol and opium, a common drug of the time) before removing a bullet.

Parents need to know that P.K. Pinkerton and the Deadly Desperados is a rip-roaring Wild West mystery that combines lively historical detail with a Monty Python-like sensibility. It's the first installment in a series starring and narrated by 12-year-old detective P.K. Pinkerton in 19th century boom town Virginia City, Nevada. ("What is it about Virginia City?" P.K. wonders. "The people here either want to kill you or kiss you.") Drunks, grifters, cheaters at cards, opium-smoking prostitutes, and violent criminals abound; young reporter Sam Clemens (Mark Twain) is a recurring character. P.K. spends the whole story dodging the deadly desperados who want to kill him, including one called Whittlin' Walt because he slowly carves up his victims while quoting Walt Whitman. Violence is almost constant: There's gunplay galore, a prostitute has her throat cut, P.K.'s birth and foster parents are massacred in separate incidents. The story also includes lots of theft, petty crime, drinking, and drug use (mostly by adults), and racial discrimination. All this is seen through the eyes of P.K., a half-Lakota kid on the autism spectrum, which makes him chronically unable to interpret the intentions of people around him. Like Huck Finn, he's trying to make sense of an insane world, survive, and do the right thing. While our hero normally dresses as a boy, author Caroline Lawrence works hard to confuse the issue of P.K.'s actual gender: a master of disguise, P.K. also makes a very fetching girl, and, depending on the attire of the moment, is pursued by both boys and girls seeking kisses. Parents may want to read the novel first before deciding whether it's right for their particular kid.