This inventive novel presents a longer life for William H. Bonney, a.k.a. Billy the Kid. . . . A fresh take on his life as a ranch hand and an outlaw in the New Mexico Territory's Lincoln County War.--David Steinberg, Albuquerque Journal
Description
Like many good stories of the old West, this one begins in a saloon. In 1914 in El Paso, Texas, two strangers strike up a conversation at the bar—Bill Roberts, a real-life figure who died in Hico, Texas, in 1950, and a former US Army scout whose brother knew Roberts by another name: Billy the Kid.
So begins The Gospel According to Billy the Kid, a tale of the old New Mexico territory, corrupt lawmen, honest ranchers, murder, betrayal, and the explosive events of the Lincoln County War that sent young Billy off seeking justice—and headed toward a bloody rendezvous with a sheriff hired to track him down. In the saloon Roberts has us imagine another story, told thirty-three years later over shots of whiskey, about a young outlaw given a second chance to find himself, to find peace, and to finally grow up and out from under the shadow of his own infamy.
Reviews
An inherently fascinating, absorbing, deftly crafted, original, and impressively entertaining novel of the Old West.--Midwest Book Review
An inherently fascinating, absorbing, deftly crafted, original, and impressively entertaining novel of the Old West.--Midwest Book Review
The Gospel According to Billy the Kid manages to be both an homage to the Western genre and a thoughtful critique of the ways in which fact is fashioned into myth.--Ed Tarkington, Chapter 16
