Written In Fire — William L. Deandrea

Three-time Edgar winner DeAndrea is no tenderfoot. The creator of both the Matt Cobb and Niccolo Benedetti books kicks off another series, starring legendary former federal marshal Lobo Blacke and Quinn Booker, his friend and biographer, set in late-19th century Wyoming. Blacke, a marshal no longer thanks to a crippling bullet in the back, has just bought a newspaper and summoned the narrating Booker to the boomtown of Le Four, Wyo. Booker steps off the train and into a brawl with drunken cowboys, who are amazed when the easterner whips them all in a scene captured by pioneering photographer ``Professor Ned'' Bessemer. The thugs, it turns out, work for Lucius Jenkins, the town's richest man, whom Blacke suspects of being the snake who shot him in the back. When Professor Ned is shot to death, Booker believes that something about his photographs provoked the murder. The search for clues involves Lucius's luscious daughter Abigail, a visiting English baronet, the worst sheriff money can buy and Blacke's hilarious but effective gunfighting technique for novices. Despite a somewhat telegraphed solution, DeAndrea spins a fast-moving gambol with vivid characters. It all adds up to a welcome new series. (Dec.)