by Pete Dexter
First published 1997
Wild Bill Hickok still has his legendary aim. He can put a bullet through a shot glass balanced on a bulldog's head from thirty paces away. But age is catching up with the famous gunfighter as he arrives in Deadwood, a rough mining town where fortunes are won and lost at card tables. Bill comes seeking easy money through gambling, but trouble follows him into every saloon. Calamity Jane trails behind him, consumed by her unrequited love. Sheriff Boone May stalks the streets, hungry to build his reputation by any means necessary. The tension builds as Bill settles into his routine of cards and whiskey. One afternoon he sits at his usual table, holding a poker hand of aces and eights. Jack McCall, a small man with ties to Boone May, enters the establishment. His eyes carry murderous intent. The moment that will cement Wild Bill's place in frontier legend approaches.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, american, adventure, action, 19th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Deadwood
Period: 19th-century
584 pages · Hardcover · Niagara
Content warnings: violence