Customer Reviews

Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War (A Luke and Jenny Adventure)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the second installment of Gayle Martin's "Luke and Jenny Adventure." I was surprised that this book was just as good as the first book, "Gunfight at the OK Corral."

Once again Luke and Jenny are transported back to the Wild West by a ghost named Paul. Paul said "every story has a beginning, and the Lincoln County story begins here. This is Fort Stanton. It is where the army sent me. I'm a Buffalo Soldier and part of the 9th Cavalry."

The story is about Billy the Kid and his impact on our history. Little was known about him until he was fourteen when his mom died. He was born Henry Antrim but changed his first name to his step fathers name of William. No one knows why he changed his last name to Bonney. Billy's wish was to perform on the stage. But as history teaches us, that did not come to be.

Once again Ms. Martin teaches us all a lot of life lessons. Some that I am sorry to say are fading away. Loyalty and people thinking about others before they think about themselves is one example.

I really hope that Ms. Martin continues on with the Luke and Jenny series. They are entertaining and full of little known facts about the Wild West and its colorful characters. I honestly can't say this book is good for any certain age, as I found this book to be a good read for all.

Sandra Heptinstall
Whispering Winds Book Reviews

Do you have any idea what famous role Henry McCarty played in the American Old West? Luke and Jenny Bartlett are back and find out first hand. After leaving Tombstone, AZ, on their way to visit their grandparents in Dallas, TX, the kids and their mother Ellen stop at the historic town of Lincoln, NM, site of the famous Lincoln County War between the Murphy-Dolan faction of businessmen, who were reputed to be associated with the so-called "Santa Fe Ring" of corrupt New Mexico politicians and business leaders, and "the Regulators" who supported John Tunstall and Alexander McSween, rivals of Murphy and Dolan, that occurred between 1877 and 1878, in which a man known in history as "Billy the Kid" played an important part. As when they were in Tombstone, a "ghostly" figured named Paul, who had been an African-American army private during the time of the Lincoln County War, takes them back to the Old West.
They go to Ft. Grant, AZ, to meet a teenage boy who had been born Henry McCarty around 1859. His mother Catherine married Bill Antrim at Santa Fe, NM, in 1873. Catherine died about a year and a half after her marriage, and Henry fell in with some bad company, becoming a petty thief known as "Kid" Antrim. Escaping to Ft. Grant, AZ, where he continued running around with the wrong crowd, the "Kid" killed an army blacksmith named Francis "Windy" Cahill, who constantly picked on him, and then fled to NM, where he ended up at Lincoln, started calling himself "William H. Bonney," and became involved in the local feud, first on the side of Dolan, then switching to the Regulators. Paul, Luke, and Jenny follow the character now known as "Billy the Kid" through the Lincoln County War events, in which both Tunstall and McSween are unjustly killed, and the aftermath leading up to the time when Billy was shot and killed at the young age of 21 by Sheriff Pat Garrett. Lew Wallace, Civil War general and author of Ben Hur, who was then governor of the New Mexico territory, even plays an important part in the story.
As with the account of the Earps and Clantons in Tombstone, AZ, author Gayle Martin points out that there are several details about Billy the Kid's life and some of the specific events in which he was involved, including the persistent rumor that he was not the one killed by Pat Garrett but escaped and lived on under a different name. Billy the Kid became an outlaw, and no one seeks to justify his crimes, but not everything is always purely black and white. One biographer wrote, "In legend, Billy the Kid has been described as a vicious and ruthless killer....In real form, the Kid was not the cold-blooded killer he has been portrayed as, but a young man who lived in a violent dog-eat-dog world, where knowing how to use a gun was the difference between life and death. As you read the biography keep in mind that Billy the Kid lived in a very different, lawless, and corrupted time, so don't judge him by today's morals and laws." Like many gunfighters of the "Old West," Billy's reputation was built partly on exaggerated accounts of his exploits such as Sheriff Pat Garrett's sensationalistic biography titled The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid. Martin does a good job of separating fact from fiction, laying out the dilemmas presented in history, and letting the reader draw his own conclusions. Youngsters who like reading about the "Wild, Wild West" will enjoy this book, which was a 2007 Indie Book Awards for Excellence finalist.

Gayle Martin's "Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War", though written for the young reader, has much to offer anyone with an interest in this topic. Her facts, for the most part, are right on and she uses creative sensitivity in exposing young readers to the more violent activities which took place during a very violent episode in Southwest history. She clearly makes the point that there were mistakes and missteps on both sides of this regional war and that even the "good guys" have their flaws.

As a member of the Billy the Kid Outlaw Gang, I know that there are many children who are interested in this topic and will find in this book an exciting read. Ms. Martin takes a very complicated story and untangles it so that the young reader remains interested and spellbound. As an adult reader, I completely enjoyed the book and make a strong recommendation for it.

Donna Tatting
Editor of the Self Published book:
"The Dudley Court of Inquiry" by R.M. Barron