The true stories of the Wild West heroes who guarded the iconic Wells Fargo stagecoaches and trains, battling colorful thieves, vicious highwaymen, and robbers armed with explosives.
This fun, flamboyant read is [Boessenecker's] ninth book, and it reads a little like a wall of wanted posters, handlebar mustaches and all ... Most of the reference material Boessenecker uses is from the period, like contemporary newspaper reports, and the fervid prose has seeped into the text. But that’s much of the fun of the book; short, dramatic scenes and crosscutting violence.
Blends the research skills of a historian and the approach of a novelist ... Many authors have written about Wells Fargo and stagecoach and train robbers, but Boessenecker finally sees to it that those who 'rode shotgun' (a term coined by later fiction writers) finally get their due.
A rip-roaring history ... a readable if old-fashioned exercise in criminal yarn spinning ... Though clearly for Old West buffs, this is an enjoyable excursion.
