Overview

The most notorious love letters in American history--supposedly destroyed a century ago--mysteriously reappear, and become the coveted prize in a fierce battle for possession that brings back to life the lawless world evoked in the letters themselves. Lisa Balamaro is an ambitious arts lawyer with a secret crush on her most intriguing client: former rodeo rider and reformed art forger, Tuck Mercer. In his newfound role as expert in Old West artifacts, Tuck gains possession of the supposedly destroyed correspondence between Doc Holliday and his cousin and childhood sweetheart, Mattie--who would become Sister Mary Melanie of the Sisters of Mercy. Given the unlikelihood the letters can ever be fully authenticated, Tuck retains Lisa on behalf of the letters' owner, Rayella Vargas, to sell them on the black market. But the buyer Tuck finds, a duplicitous judge from the Tombstone area, has other, far more menacing ideas. As Lisa works feverishly to make things right, Rayella secretly enlists her ex-marine boyfriend in a daring scheme of her own. When the judge learns he's been blindsided, he rallies a cadre of armed men for a deadly standoff reminiscent of the moment in history that made Doc famous: The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

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9780578664057

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Reviews

[T]he best in contemporary crime fiction--or, if I may be so bold, in contemporary fiction, period. --Patrick Anderson, Washington Post David Corbett swaggers in to the new American western with the fresh and inventive The Long-Lost Love Letters of Doc Holliday. The novel melds action thriller, courtroom drama, and Elmore Leonard-style crime novel to explore the territory where legend, lore, and fact collide. Corbett frames all of it by weaving in the correspondences between Doc Holliday and his cousin Mattie, creating an elegant counterpoint between old west and new. --BookPeople Corbett's character-driven legal thriller is full of suspense and hard-charging gun-slinging action from the Old West to a modern-day shoot-out. The courtroom scenes are a master class in legal procedural fiction with quick-fired exchanges between all parties as the arts lawyer, Lisa Balamaro, seeks to have the stolen letters protected by the courts. Outside the courtroom, other characters find ways beyond the law to settle their disputes with deadly consequences, and an action-packed finale full of strategic combat complexity makes the shootouts of the Old West seem like a simpler time. But the results of violent revenge are timeless, and Corbett has served it up cold with calculated precision. --US Review of Books

Author Information

David Corbett is the author of numerous critically acclaimed works of fiction: The Devil's Redhead (nominee: Anthony and Barry Awards for Best First Novel) Done for a Dime (NY Times Notable Book; Macavity Award nominee, Best Novel; named one of the two or three best American crime novels I have ever read by Patrick Anderson of the Washington Post) Blood of Paradise (nominated for numerous awards, including the Edgar, and named both one of the Top Ten Mysteries and Thrillers of 2007 by the Washington Post and a San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book) Do They Know I'm Running? (Spinetingler Award, Best Novel-Rising Star Category (a rich, hard-hitting epic-PW, starred review). The Mercy of the Night (Superlative hard-boiled crime fiction-Booklist, Starred Review) The Devil Prayed and Darkness Fell (novella) Thirteen Confessions (Stories) The Long-Lost Love Letters of Doc Holliday His short fiction and poetry have appeared in journals as diverse as Mission and Tenth, The Smoking Poet, and San Francisco Noir, and his stories have twice been selected for inclusion in Best American Mystery Stories. His book on the craft of characterization, The Art of Character, has been called a writer's bible, and it will soon appear in translation in both Spanish and Chinese. A follow-up, focusing on complex motivation, The Compass of Character, appeared in November 2019. He's written numerous articles on the craft and theory of fiction for the New York Times, Narrative, Bright Ideas, Zyzzyva, MovieMaker, and other outlets. Prior to his career as a novelist, he worked as a private investigator for the firm of Palladino & Sutherland in San Francisco, and played a significant role in such headline litigations as The Peoples' Temple Trial, the first Michael Jackson child molestation scandal, the Cotton Club Murder Case, and many others. He is married and splits his time between northern California and coastal Norway. For more, visit www.davidcorbett.com.

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