APRIL 2014 - AudioFile
Narrator Johnny Heller’s tough, weather-beaten voice lends itself wonderfully to this crackling audio tale of derring-do featuring the most famous outlaw in U.S. history. The September 1876 bank robbery in Northfield, Minnesota, led to the end of the James-Younger gang, a story that involves townspeople who took justice into their own hands. Heller narrates with authority, and although he doesn’t use a wide range of voices, his delivery is animated enough to make the story come alive. He varies his pitch to create characters that are more suggested than confirmed. He does his best work while using his natural voice to paint images of a bygone era in the American past. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
The New York Times Book Review - Greg Tobin
Gardner's book introduces the brothers at the start of their prolonged crime spree, but the heart of his story is the 1876 Northfield, Minn., raid and its aftermath, which he depicts in rollicking style.
Publishers Weekly
In this true-life tale of the infamous Jesse James and his outlaw gang, historian Gardner (To Hell on a Fast Horse) crafts an elegant narrative that’s as entertaining as it is historically accurate. Led by the “unquestionably charismatic” Jesse and his Shakespeare- and Bible-quoting brother Frank, the criminals are a “bunch of good ol’ boys” whose “fearless efficiency” in their capers and their penchant for stylish horses, clothes, and pistols made them celebrities in their own day. The book’s focus is a 10-minute bank heist and shootout in Northfield, Minn., in 1876, which leaves two gang members dead and the survivors on the lam. Gardner conveys the mayhem wonderfully, shifting focus from within the bank to the men on the street to townspeople taking up arms in defense, providing a rich visual and rhythmic dimension to the story and shedding light on a bygone era’s drastically different approach to law enforcement. The ensuing manhunt is fraught with tension as the James gang, with “various wounds seeping blood and pus,” roams the wilderness, evading numerous mobilized vigilante forces made up of a panoply of characters with rich histories all their own. A must-read for any western fan. Agent: Jim Donovan, Donovan Literary. (Aug. 1)
From the Publisher
Rollicking. ... Equal parts violent melodrama and meticulous procedural... with enough bloody action to engage readers enthralled by tales of good versus evil.” — New York Times Book Review
“Superb. ... Mr. Gardner earns an A+ for his research and an A++ for his writing. — New York Journal of Books
“An elegant narrative that’s as entertaining as it is historically accurate… A must-read.” — Publishers Weekly
“Action packed…A gripping read and probably tells all there is to tell about a legendary group of psychopaths.” — Kirkus
“[This] bullet-by-bullet account... sheds considerable light on a neglected aspect of the gang’s life of crime... well done.” — Booklist
“Rewarding. ... Gardner’s re-creation of the Northfield Raid... orchestrates the often-unwieldy particulars of the event with considerable virtuosity. ... It would be hard to imagine a more thorough account.” — Washington Post
Washington Post
Rewarding. ... Gardner’s re-creation of the Northfield Raid... orchestrates the often-unwieldy particulars of the event with considerable virtuosity. ... It would be hard to imagine a more thorough account.
New York Times Book Review
Rollicking. ... Equal parts violent melodrama and meticulous procedural... with enough bloody action to engage readers enthralled by tales of good versus evil.
Booklist
[This] bullet-by-bullet account... sheds considerable light on a neglected aspect of the gang’s life of crime... well done.
New York Journal of Books
Superb. ... Mr. Gardner earns an A+ for his research and an A++ for his writing.
Booklist
[This] bullet-by-bullet account... sheds considerable light on a neglected aspect of the gang’s life of crime... well done.
Washington Post
Rewarding. ... Gardner’s re-creation of the Northfield Raid... orchestrates the often-unwieldy particulars of the event with considerable virtuosity. ... It would be hard to imagine a more thorough account.
New York Times
Rollicking. ... Equal parts violent melodrama and meticulous procedural... with enough bloody action to engage readers enthralled by tales of good versus evil.
APRIL 2014 - AudioFile
Narrator Johnny Heller’s tough, weather-beaten voice lends itself wonderfully to this crackling audio tale of derring-do featuring the most famous outlaw in U.S. history. The September 1876 bank robbery in Northfield, Minnesota, led to the end of the James-Younger gang, a story that involves townspeople who took justice into their own hands. Heller narrates with authority, and although he doesn’t use a wide range of voices, his delivery is animated enough to make the story come alive. He varies his pitch to create characters that are more suggested than confirmed. He does his best work while using his natural voice to paint images of a bygone era in the American past. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
An action-packed, admiring portrait of the James-Younger gang that robbed people, banks and trains for a decade before retiring, dying or stewing in prison. Western historian Gardner (To Hell on a Fast Horse: Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett, and the Epic Chase to Justice in the Old West, 2010) has done impressive research in the Old West's abundant but relentlessly unreliable sources (lurid newspaper articles, jailhouse interviews, self-serving memoirs by elderly gang members) to deliver a colorful portrait of men who do not deserve his admiration. Jesse James (1847–1882), Frank James (1843–1915) and the Younger brothers grew up in the Midwest. Confederate sympathizers, most participated as "bushwackers" in the nasty partisan insurgency that wracked Missouri during the Civil War. Inured to violence, they later coalesced into a criminal band that traveled widely and became national news. Gardner summarizes their lives and early depredations before settling in to describe their last, spectacularly bungled 1876 robbery of a Northfield, Minn., bank. The clerk refused to open the safe. By the time the gang lost patience and killed him, the citizenry had gathered whatever weapons they could find, killed two gang members and wounded the rest before the robbers fled. There followed a massive, disorganized manhunt from which only Jesse and Frank escaped. Jesse later recruited another gang and committed several robberies before one member killed him for the reward. Written in the breathless prose that seems obligatory for this genre and with more sympathy to the subjects than seems necessary, the book is still a gripping read and probably tells all there is to tell about a legendary group of psychopaths.
