Doc Holliday and Lords of the Land

In Doc Holliday, a man came from the American South, a gentleman by breeding, a dentist by training, a gambler by vocation. But as Dr. John H. Holliday, a man fleeing his tragic past, drifted across the West, living among some of the roughest men on the frontier, word spread quickly he never walked away from a fight, and he never drew too late.

Now, from Dodge City to Denver and Cheyenne, from boomtown to sinkholes, "Doc" Holliday was driven by the demons of his past, a skilled gambler and a seasoned mankiller-his name was known and feared long before the O. K. Corral.

The story of a man who spoke softly and carried a lightning gun, Doc Holliday is Matt Braun's extraordinary chronicle of the West's most complex and legendary figure. In Lords of the Land, Hank Laird had never laid claim to sainthood. Truth is, his enemies would be quick to swear that the man was the devil himself-a reputation Laird earned as one of the most hardscrabble men ever to grace the soil of South Texas.

With grit, gold and gunpowder, he forged an empire out of chaos in the wake of the Civil War. But now the vultures are coming home to roost-and it's up to Laird whether Santa Guerra ranchlands will be heaven or hell.

BRAUN was the author of more than four dozen novels, and won the Golden Spur Award from the Western Writers of America for The Kincaids. He described himself as a "true westerner"; born in Oklahoma, he was the descendant of a long line of ranchers. He wrote with a passion for historical accuracy and detail that earned him a reputation as the most authentic portrayer of the American West.

Braun passed away in 2016.