Black Hat Jack -- Joe Lansdale

Joe Lansdale told me long ago, maybe as much as twenty years ago, that what he really wanted to write was a novel about Nat Love, aka Deadwood Dick.  It took him a while to get to the point in his career that he was able to write it, but he's been doing research all along and also writing some things about Deadwood Dick.  The novel is called Paradise Sky, and it will be out from Mulholland Books next year.  But if you're eager to see what it will be like, Subterranean has published a novella about Deadwood Dick

The story is about the second battle of Adobe Walls, which is famous in Texas history.  There's no record of Nat Love's being there, but he could've been, along with his good friend Black Hat Jack.  There are a good many accounts of the battle, where a handful of men (and a couple of women) stood off hundreds or thousands of Comanches and Kiowas and members of a few other tribes, but history plays into Lansdale's hands because the accounts agree on almost nothing.  This leaves Lansdale free to include some of the things that are pretty well documented, like Billy Dixon's amazing rifle shot, and to make up pretty much whatever he wants to.  

If you're familiar with Lansdale's work, you know what to expect: plenty of blood, action, and violence, lots of cussing, an abundance of rough-and-tumble humor, occasional social commentary, and even a few tender moments.  It's all here, and it's all great fun, just the thing to to enjoy on its own and to whet your appetite for Paradise Sky.