Epitaph: A Novel of the O.K. Corral – The Epic True Story of Wyatt Earp and the Woman Behind the Legend

Russell begins her brilliant new novel and follow up to her wonderful book DOC by asking the reader to stop reading. Instead she asks that we look at a clock for just 30 seconds and “…imagine one half of a single minute so terrible it will pursue you all your life and far beyond the grave.” For the famous gun fight of western myth and legend was fought at Tombstone’s O.K. Corral and took all of a half a minute. Without it we may not remember Wyatt Earp or Doc Holliday or the men they faced and without the newspapers, dime novels and the then political and sectional animosities we may never have heard of the gunfight either. In Russell’s earlier western DOC we followed Doc Holliday and his journey and new friendship with Wyatt Earp in Dodge City (really more with Wyatt’s younger brother Morgan). It’s a wonderful novel that serves now as a sequel to EPATAPH and although Doc Holliday is prominently featured in this new book we now become fully invested in the story of Wyatt Earp, his brothers, family, and the life and relationship with the various Earp brother’s women and Sarah Marcus, the budding actress and daughter of a San Francisco Baker. (If you saw and enjoyed the movie Tombstone you will remember Sarah romancing Wyatt and there living happily ever after. And although the movie version was partially correct the real story is much darker and real and full of heartbreak.) Epitaph is as much Sarah’s story as it is Wyatt’s or Doc’s. (I suggest reading both books in order but either one stands alone as fine individual works if you choose not too.) Russell’s EPITAPH at 577 pages is more epic than just debunking myth and legend and retelling a familiar. It kicks up the dust of Tombstone and it hurts you when you feel Doc Holliday try and breathe it. The dusty streets and rugged stage coach rides, the silver mining, the holdups (look if you want to really holdup a stage just kill one of the horses) and the wooden building so easily burned by fire and rebuilt by an involved rich community. Some of the bad guys were actually not that bad and some of the good guys were actually not that good. They all had stories to tell and versions of events they believed to be the truth. The actual O.K. Corral gun fight itself was personal but the legal issue was that of gun control. No guns were allowed by law in Tombstone and the Earps were enforcing the law on those who refused to disarm. (This law was also true in Dodge City when the Earps were the law there.) The Earps were Yankee Republicans and most of the population in Arizona at the time was Confederate Democrats. And it seems everyone had their own Sherriff or Marshall. Even the Cow Boys who were a gang that rode into Mexico and rustled cattle to fatten and sell in Arizona knew they were breaking the law but they always got away with it so they grew to view the border as merely an inconvenient technicality. This telling is, of course, a novel but Russell has studied and researched events and her version and details read true. I am often left disappointed by the ending of novels but Russell has crafted a brilliant final act that reads as an epilog and for Wyatt Earp. Her ending, which is really our ending, is a fitting if not wholly deserved Epitaph for Wyatt Earp. As Doc Holliday might have said if he had lived to see what Mary Doria Russell has done in the writing and telling of both his story and the story of his friend Wyatt…. “By god those books of hers are daisies”. I simply loved both these books.

This is a well written story that is well paced, moves quickly, and keeps the reader’s interest throughout. I liked the way the author structured the story from the creative and interesting chapter titles to the technique of periodically calling the reader’s attention to what we know will happen and then fill in the events before and after. The story is more than simply the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. It’s about how the gun fighters got there and then the aftermath. Misunderstandings, manipulations, loyalty, and violence woven together. Sometimes the events in Tombstone mirror today’s nightly news. This story is also a fictional biography of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday getting at who they were and how the myths about them, particularly Wyatt, were created. Finally, it is also a love story, multiple love stories, as the author gives considerable time and thought to the women involved with the Earps, but not syrupy or bodice ripping romance. I think the author did a good job at depicting real relationships. This is historical fiction at its finest.

I admit I wouldn't have read this book if an upcoming vacation in Tucson was not in my future. My husband, a great fan of the Wild West, wants to visit Tombstone a tour about which I was rather, well, meh. When Epitaph: A Novel of the O.K. Corral popped up on Amazon I felt the necessity to read it - only to "bone" up on the area and its history. To my utter surprise, this book captivated me from the first sentence. Yes, this is an historical novel, but Russell has brought life to these fabled characters, men and women whose names are made more of myth than reality. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday are not the 1950's Hugh O'Brien or the Kevin Costner and Val Kilmer of more recent years. These are the true-life men who though deeply flawed, looked upon justice as non-questionable. Wrongs will be made right and swiftly so. Epitaph is fascinating and thoroughly entertaining, with an undercurrent of tragedy, consequences and conscience. This is an enormously well-written, deeply researched novel filled with liquid prose that takes the reader back over 100 years ago to the dust, the heat, the blood and bullets of the Wild West in once thriving Tombstone of the Arizona Territory. My "meh" has turned to "yes!" and I cannot wait to get there, thanks to this marvelous Epitaph. Read it. You won't be disappopinted.

This is by far the best depiction of the Earps that I have read, and I have read a good number. The story drew me in from page one and held me until the end. Wyatt Earp, indeed the Earp family in general, have been so done to death by time and myth that it take a keen intelligence and excellent writing skills, MUCH on display here, to make it all come alive as one feels it to have been. Ms. Russell's pace is superb. Her attention to detail is excellent. She draws a character in a few strokes and then leaves the reader to complete the picture. I read her novel Doc some years ago and loved it for the same reasons that I have been drawn to this one. I know and have lived in or close to all the spots described here. She has them nailed. This could have been the standard page-turner romp that one sees so often in western writing. It was in fact a real piece of literature, well worth the very enjoyable time spent reading it.

Convincing and believable characters in a historical setting I believed that I knew much about, about written with an excellent use of period believable dialogue. Highly recommended and I am off to visit the back catalogue of the writer. In Corona virus lock down mode, so this was an exceptionally good read to immerse myself in. It was sitting on a bookshelf for a fair time in my study and I am so glad I finally got around to reading it. I have read many books and watched many films about this subject and characters and I so enjoyed and related to this writer's perceptive take on them. So hard to have a new approach on such well trodden territory. Kudos to Ms Russell

Very good read.

Having already read Mary Doria Russell's other book 'Doc' which deals with the period up to Doc Holliday's arrival in Tombstone, this book concentrates on the events leading up to the Gunfight at the OK Corral and the aftermath. Wonderfully written with insights into the characters, especially the women partners of all the Earps and Doc Holliday. Having visited Tombstone many times, this book really takes me back there to 1881 and that fateful day in October. I couldn't put it down.

This book is really well written and sounds very well researched. The impression is of a very realistic portrayal of life in the wild west, warts and all. If you are interested in this era I think you will love this book.

An excellent book, I really enjoyed it.