A Gentleman in Hell

by Elena Sandidge

After a poker game turns to bloodshed, John (Doc) Holliday is forced to leave Wichita, fleeing the law through the thick of a thunderstorm. He arrives in Dodge City, sick, wounded and depressed. He returns to his old trade as a dentist, but his tuberculosis and reputation as a gunfighter leaves him with few patients. He saves lawman Wyatt Earp’s life one night and despite their differences, becomes a loyal friend. When Doc suffers a serious lung hemorrhage, Wyatt in turn saves his life and oversees his new friend’s recovery. Despite having a wicked reputation as a gunfighter, Doc proves that he is loyal and can be trusted to assist the lawmen of Dodge City.

Doc Holliday’s loyalty is tested to its limit when Wyatt Earp and his family’s lives are placed in danger in Tombstone, Arizona. Doc must choose to risk not only his own life, but his home, and reputation at the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. It will amount to the biggest gamble of Doc’s life. How far would you go to keep a friend and fight for something you believe in?

253 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 7, 2013

About the author

I'm the author of A Gentleman in Hell, a novel celebrating the life of dentist and gunfighter Doc Holliday.

I was brought up in Scotland but I currently live in Kentucky.

I love riding horses and enjoy long trail rides and beach gallops. I'm passionate about the history of the Old West.

Reviews

[Lone Gunmen Publishers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written and interesting but lacked research. Of course, this was not intended to be a biography of John Henry Holliday. I appreciated a number of insights into Doc and the Earps but where I think it failed the most was falling under the illusion that Holliday was an Earp lapdog and a neophyte to the West and simply would not survive without Wyatt. In reality, he was only physically in the same towns as Wyatt for a couple of years and that not even consecutively. It was often Wyatt who wrote repeatedly to Holliday to get him to come and join him in some venture or other. Holliday certainly didn't hang after him like a half-whipped dog. Holliday kept the train rails hot and had no compunction of traveling on his own to parts well apart from any of the Earps and seemed to thrive most any place he went. Do I still recommend the book? Yes. It's just falls short of being the Holliday of what (granted little) research reveals.

[Cat LeFey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not my usual genre, but a hermit I know recommended it, and Val Kilmer was my gay awakening, so here I am.
This is basically the movie Tombstone, but without the boring, forced love story plotline, and a much more tolerable Wyatt Earp.
Fans of westerns will like this retelling, with all the grit and violence expected, as well as insight into our beloved rake.

[Kaj Samuelsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really good book. It made Doc Holliday look so real, that is what I like about this book and I look forward to the next in the series.