Deadwood
A Novel

It's intriguing that Deadwood was published in 1986, yet has been called "the best Western ever written." More intriguing is the plot summary, which reads like a Law and Order treatment. It's even got the introductory "based on true events" epigram. And, my god, what events they were. Gunsmiths, outla......more

"The dreams would wake him, and he would lie in his blankets knowing that the place where his dreams met the world was the place he would die." 4.75⭐'s Initial Thoughts I received Deadwood as a late Secret Santa gift from a good friend on a Facebook book community I take part in called The Nig......more

This one grew on me. It starts out slow and weird and despite wallowing in the weird, the pace picks up quite a but. I was a huge fan of the HBO series about Deadwood and so this probably colored my mental pictures of Charlie Utter, Wild Bill, Sheriff Bullock, Al Swearengen, and Calamity Jane. As op......more

Despite being written 20 years before the excellent show on HBO was first broadcast, it's hard to imagine that it didn't serve as a template for the show's creator, David Milch (minus the profanity ubiquitous throughout the show). So in sync are the characterizations in both the book and show, despi......more