Follow the Angels, Follow the Doves: The Bass Reeves Trilogy, Book One

by Sidney Thompson

Overview

Adapted for the Paramount+ miniseries Lawmen: Bass Reeves, directed by Taylor Sheridan and starring David Oyelowo

2022 National Indie Excellence Awards Finalist for Western Fiction
2021 Phillip H. McMath Post Publication Book Award Finalist for Prose
2021 International Afro-American Historical & Genealogical Society Book Award for Historical Fiction in Event/Era
2021 Oklahoma Book Award Finalist for Fiction from the Oklahoma Center for the Book
2021 Will Rogers Medallion Book Award Finalist for Western Fiction
2021 Spur Award Finalist for Historical Novel from the Western Writers of America
2021 Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist for Historical Fiction (Pre 1900s)
2020 Arkansas Gem from the Arkansas Center for the Book
2021 Peacemaker Award Finalist for Best First Novel
2021 Indie Book Award Finalist for Historical Fiction

Follow the Angels, Follow the Doves is an origin story in the true American tradition. Before Bass Reeves could stake his claim as the most successful nineteenth-century American lawman, arresting more outlaws than any other deputy during his thirty-two-year career as a deputy U.S. marshal in some of the most dangerous regions of the Wild West, he was a slave.

After a childhood picking cotton, Reeves became an expert marksman under his master’s tutelage, winning shooting contests throughout the region. His skill had serious implications, however, as the Civil War broke out. Reeves was given to his master’s mercurial, sadistic, Moby-Dick-quoting son in the hopes that Reeves would keep him safe in battle. The ensuing humiliation, love, heroics, war, mind games, and fear solidified Reeves’s determination to gain his freedom and drew him one step further on his fated path to an illustrious career.

Follow the Angels, Follow the Doves is an important historical work that places Reeves in the pantheon of American heroes and a thrilling historical novel that narrates a great man’s exploits amid the near-mythic world of the nineteenth-century frontier. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496220189
Publisher:	UNP - Bison Books
Publication date:	03/01/2020
Series:	Bass Reeves Trilogy , #1
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	246
Sales rank:	182,242
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Sidney Thompson teaches creative writing and African American literature at Texas Christian University. He is the author of You/Wee: Poems from a Father and Sideshow: Stories. Thompson has published his short fiction in numerous literary journals and anthologies.

Table of Contents

Note on Language

Part 1. Genesis
1. Bass Reeves    
2. Shoo    
3. Peas in a Pod    
4. Ice         
5. Books    
6. The Pussytoes    
7. The Wallows    
8. Friends    

Part 2. Exodus
9. The Sticks    
10. A Good One    
11. A Sire Mule    
12. The Bottle    
13. Rub    
14. Cracker King    
15. Crumbs and Raindrops    

Part 3. That Heaven Place
16. The Seed    
17. What a N—— Wants    
18. A Revelation    
19. The Quiet Places    
20. Walpurgisnacht    
21. Now That There’s Space    
22. Closer    
23. A Little Red Church    
24. Left    
25. Thataway    

Acknowledgments

Editorial Reviews

Midnite Michael's achievement is capturing the spirit of a classic Western while at the same time giving this biographical novel a contemporary feel. Thompson tells the story of Bass Reeves. Born enslaved just before the Civil War, Reeves grew to become a celebrated U.S. marshal. Reeves, an expert marksman from a young age, was forced to endure abuse by his enslaver as he took decisive steps to claim his human right to freedom. Listeners are treated to a literary sense of time and place. With his deep baritone, Michael conveys confidence while building the tension in Reeves's story. His solo performance is a gift. S.P.C. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2024 - AudioFile

"Thompson . . . is a highly entertaining writer, and his Bass Reeves emerges as an intelligent, reluctantly violent, sympathetic young man. Readers will find the compelling recreations of two important Civil War battles to be a kind of bonus."—John Mort, Mississippi Book Page

Mississippi Book Page - John Mort

This novel, like all the best historical fiction, reminds us that the most memorable events in our history happened in specific minutes, hours, and days to individuals every bit as complicated and contradictory as you or me.”—Susan Perabo, author of The Fall of Lisa Bellow: A Novel

Susan Perabo

Sidney Thompson has the ability to pull you into the narrative and give you a glimpse of the antebellum life of a young slave destined for greatness as a lawman. . . . Highly recommended.”—Art T. Burton, author of Black Gun, Silver Star: The Life and Legend of Frontier Marshal Bass Reeves

Art T. Burton

"Thompson's short novel is a fascinating look at life in northwest Arkansas in the years before and during the Civil War, when the future lawman came of age and ultimately made his break for freedom. The rest of the trilogy is likely to be just as intriguing, especially because that's the way the real Bass Reeves lived his life."—Glen Seeber, Oklahoman

Oklahoman - Glen Seeber

Fearless and unflinching, Follow the Angels, Follow the Doves is a magnificent work of historical fiction. The characters and the times in which they lived are intensely and beautifully realized, and every line rings with authenticity. . . . Its truths are ever so urgent.”—Steve Yarbrough, author of The Unmade World: A Novel

Steve Yarbrough