Booklist Review

You wouldn't think anything was left to say about Billy the Kid, but Colt turns in a methodical, at times brilliant, account of William Bonney set after the Lincoln County War. During the war, the Kid was deputized, and, in the pursuit of his duties, he killed two crooked lawmen. When the governor issued pardons, he excluded the Kid, because he couldn't bring himself to pardon the killing of lawmen. Incredulous and resentful, the Kid soon goes bad, rustling cattle and horses on a small scale and heading up a counterfeiting scheme. Killings pile up until at last he's jailed and sentenced to death. Colt follows the script of myriad movies to treat the Kid's famous escape but thereafter deviates from standard accounts. Colt's Kid did not hide out in Mexico, there to be run down by Pat Garrett; he was deeply in love and hid out with a girlfriend. Garrett shot him, or did he? Colt bases his alternative views on Garrett's account and a book by his deputy, John Poe. Devotees of the never-quite-resolved story will be much intrigued.--Mort, John Copyright 2010 Booklist