Customer Reviews

Spirits of the Border: The History and Mystery of Tombstone, AZ.

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This book is a rehash of other Tombstone books only poorly written and edited. I was underlining so many misspelled words and tangled up sentences that I found myself reading this with a pen in my hand. I was expecting some decent examples of the spirits and mystery the title alluded to, but all I got were repeated phrases such as, "They smelled cigar smoke ", "Things flew through the air", " We could hear footsteps." There is a story about a poker chip that keeps appearing and disappearing that is repeated 3 or 4 times. Luckily the stories are short, except for the one on the Bird Cage Theatre which seems to end and then starts up again repeating the previous sentences. I'm sure this book sells well in Tombstone to the tourists, but if you really want History and Mystery look elsewhere.

After moving to Cochise county, I have been reading everything I can get about history of the area. I may not quite be an expert historian yet, but I'm not a rookie either.
This book has misinformation, total BS, leads the reader off on tangents that are far off subject. It has a ridiculous number of typos and grammatical errors. Didn't ANYONE proof read this book? I'd say the author was just after a quick buck and unfortunately is probably getting it.
I wouldn't believe anything written in this book. For instance: The author states that Johnny Ringo was found dead shot in the head, scalped, his guns unfired. This is contrary to everything else I've read about Ringo. He wasn't scalped, and his GUN (not guns) had one shot fired.
I'm not even half way through the book yet and am debating if it is worth my time to read the rest of it. It should be listed as fiction, and I don't read fiction.

Tombstone is a great place to visit and there are a few nuggets of useful information in the book. However, text is often repeated several times during the course of the book, it is badly edited, and it is, therefore, a rather dull book to read.