As the book unfolds, we learn of the anarchy which characterized much of the post-Civil War frontier, and we meet those who take advantage of it and contribute to it--Quantrill's Raiders, Wild Bill Anderson, Cole Younger, the James brothers, the Pinkertons, and a host of other legends of the West. We learn what, if anything, motivates each of them and cringe at the unimaginable--and casual--bloodshed which is such a part of their lives. And despite the horrors these outlaws commit, we come to understand that underlying all this crime there is a kind of "chivalry," an unvoiced code of expected behavior even among the most vicious of killers. It is this code which Robert Ford, Jesse James's assassin, has broken.

The bleak precariousness of the lives of ordinary people leads the characters to blur the lines between good and evil, and the author's thoughtful selection of details increases the dramatic tension as violence both real and threatened looms. Anyone who has ever thought of the Wild West as romantic would do well to study this well-researched and vividly written novel. Mary Whipple