The Fourth Horseman [Paperback]

Randy Lee Eickhoff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1999

The legend of Doc Holliday comes to light in this tragic first-person account of the Old West. After tuberculosis cuts shorts short his plans to become a dentist, Doc heads west, destined to become the lone outsider at the OK Corral gunfight. From the award-winning author of "Bowie."

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

John Henry "Doc" Holliday first confronted death as an adolescent in Reconstruction Georgia in the mid-1860s. With Yankee carpetbaggers working diligently to strip what remained of southern dignity, young John shot a man when he bragged of molesting John's mother. After his father sent him away to protect him from the law, he gambled, drank, and immersed himself in the pleasures of the flesh. With the onset of tuberculosis, he went West, falling in with the Earp brothers and participating in the infamous shootout at the OK Corral. Eickhoff's Holliday is a symbol of the West itself, burning brightly but ever so briefly as encroaching civilization extinguished the flame. Although Eickhoff imbues Holliday with a mythic grandeur that--especially near the conclusion--becomes burdensome, this is still a great adventure, well told. (One cautionary note: southerner Holliday's attitude toward the black Union occupation troops is brutally racist.) Wes Lukowsky --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 610 pages
• Publisher: Forge; Reprint edition (November 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812571835
• ISBN-13: 978-0812571837
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,599,426 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding!, July 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Fourth Horseman (Hardcover)

Eickhoff has written a tour-de-force that will surely become a classic of the genre in years to come. This is an outstanding contribution to the Western genre. He has diligently researched a very difficult subject and even found examples of Holliday's vernacular. He has most certainly found the soul of Doc Holliday and laid back the veneer of legend to expose the true man. Some disgruntled individuals who do not know the historicity of the novel may show their ignorance by debunking Eickhoff's attention to detail, but that cannot take away the excellent of the work itself.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Val Kilmer spawns book . . . Film at Eleven, May 13, 2001

By 

Mina (Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fourth Horseman (Hardcover)

I found this book to be somewhat enjoyable, as a casual read. But if you are looking for honest, hard-core facts about the man who was John Henry Holliday, then this book is not for you. But as a fiction book, it was ok. The main problem that I had with it, and that I see other reviewers had with it, is that it is *very* similar to the movie 'Tombstone'. The main character is modeled so closely after Val Kilmer's movie take that he actually uses the same phrases. Even events that happened in the movie, such as the murder of Johnny Ringo, which was probably a suicide, more than a murder, were taken directly from the movie.

On the account of the 'name-dropping', I found it somewhat quaint, almost like a 'Forrest Gump' kind of move. Running into Calamity Jane, Edwin Booth and other such notables was quite fun, if you're interested in that.

I would have given this book four stars if not for the end. It happened almost exactly as it did in the movie 'Tombstone', which was very disappointing and almost sad. And throughout the whole book, the main character was spouting off phrases from the movie, almost verbatim, such as 'You're a daisy', which was certainly the 'in' slang word of the time, but not as much as was used in the book. But the whole thing about 'I'm your huckleberry' got to be a bit tiresome, as he said it like twenty times, and a bit embarrassing for me to read it. Another example was the use of the adjective 'cosmopolitan' to describe towns, places, etc.

The book itself was well written, with the descriptions of the South being dead-on. Magnolia, and willow trees and an array of interesting characters contributed to the 'persona' that we know of as being 'the South' were all very interesting. The pace of the book was well-set, nice and easy with out being too hurried or too slow.

All in all, I'm pretty sure I would recommend this, if you have an open mind towards the *fictional* character of John Henry Holliday. But if you're looking for a true to life story, check out 'And Die In The West' by Paula Marks, which is one of the best non-biased tellings of both the fight at the O.K. Corral, and the stories of all the men involved.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Think 'My Darling Clementine', January 8, 2000

By 

Garry Lafollette (Winchester, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fourth Horseman (Paperback)

Like John Ford's classic movie of Holliday/Earp/Tombstone this is a work that uses the facts as a jumping off point for a world of fiction. Much liberty is taken with what is known of Doc's life, and much use is made of things that can not be known. Like Ford's movie this is the worst place to start if you're looking for solid info about Doc's life. But (also like the film) this is excellant entertainment if you already have the facts down and are interested in seeing what a tallented creative mind can do with a figure who will always be more myth and ghost than flesh and blood.