Northfield

Here’s gunplay, violence and crackling drama on a larger scale than any other robbery pulled by the James-Younger Gang. These firsthand accounts of the most ambitious yet foolhardy robbery in frontier history ricochets across the pages in a deadly reflection of that explosive fall day of September 7, 1876.

We hear the voices of Lizzie May Heywood, the five-year-old daughter of slain bank bookkeeper Joseph Heywood, to Cole Younger and his brothers Jim and Bob to Frank and Jesse James and Adelbert Ames, who stood fast with many sturdy Northfield townsmen in fighting off the gang members. Those voices also tell the reader why Missouri long riders would follow Bill Stiles north when even Ma James mistrusted him. Once again, Johnny D. Boggs has brought the Old West’s past to life with a capital L. —William Garwood