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Sundance, Butch and Me: A Novel about Etta Place
Her name is Martha Baird. Most know her as Etta Place, the fearless woman who rode with notorious outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Told in Etta's voice, Sundance, Butch and Me is history transformed. From daring train robberies and hair-raising escapes from the law, to her attraction to Sundance and love for Butch, Etta recounts the drama, passion, and adventures of America's most famous—and sometimes most comic—band of robbers.
Despite a famous movie, countless books, and much conjecture, no one knows the truth about Etta Place. In this novel, Judy Alter, an author acclaimed for chronicling women of the nineteenth-century American West, creates one of the most believable and plausible accounts of this ever-mysterious woman.
Told in Etta's voice, Sundance, Butch and Me is history transformed. From daring train robberies and hair-raising escapes from the law, to her attraction to Sundance and love for Butch, Etta recounts the drama, passion, and adventures of America's most famous—and sometimes most comic—band of robbers.
Despite a famous movie, countless books, and much conjecture, no one knows the truth about Etta Place. In this novel, Judy Alter, an author acclaimed for chronicling women of the nineteenth-century American West, creates one of the most believable and plausible accounts of this ever-mysterious woman.
339 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 1, 2022
1 person is currently reading
8 people want to read
About the author
Judy Alter
146 books133 followersAfter an established career writing historical fiction for adults and young adults about women of the nineteenth-century American West, Texas author Judy Alter turned her attention to contemporary cozy mysteries and wrote three series: Kelly O’Connell Mysteries, Blue Plate Café Mysteries, and Oak Grove Mysteries. She has most recently published two titles in her Irene in Chicago Culinary Mysteries--Saving Irene and Irene in Danger.
Her most recent historical books are The Most Land, the Best Cattle: The Waggoners of Texas and The Second Battle of the Alamo, a study in both Texas and women’s history. Judy’s western fiction has been recognized with awards from the Western Writers of America, the Texas Institute of Letters, and the National Cowboy Museum and Hall of Fame. She has been honored with the Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Achievement by WWA and inducted into the Texas Literary Hall of Fame at the Fort Worth Public Library. She was named One of 100 Women, Living and Dead, Who Have Left Their Mark on Texas by the Dallas Morning News, and named an Outstanding Woman of Fort Worth in the Arts, 1988, by the Mayor’s Commission on the Status of Women
Judy is a member Sisters in Crime and Guppies, Women Writing the West, Story Circle Network, a past president of Western Writers of America, and an active member of the Texas Institute of Letters.
Retired after almost thirty years with TCU Press, twenty of them as director, Judy lives in a small cottage—just right for one and a dog—in Fort Worth, Texas with her Bordoodle Sophie. She is the mother of four and the grandmother of seven. Her hobby is cooking, and she’s learning how to cook in a postage-stamp kitchen without a stove. In fact, she wrote a cookbook about it: Gourmet on a Hot Plate.
Her most recent historical books are The Most Land, the Best Cattle: The Waggoners of Texas and The Second Battle of the Alamo, a study in both Texas and women’s history. Judy’s western fiction has been recognized with awards from the Western Writers of America, the Texas Institute of Letters, and the National Cowboy Museum and Hall of Fame. She has been honored with the Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Achievement by WWA and inducted into the Texas Literary Hall of Fame at the Fort Worth Public Library. She was named One of 100 Women, Living and Dead, Who Have Left Their Mark on Texas by the Dallas Morning News, and named an Outstanding Woman of Fort Worth in the Arts, 1988, by the Mayor’s Commission on the Status of Women
Judy is a member Sisters in Crime and Guppies, Women Writing the West, Story Circle Network, a past president of Western Writers of America, and an active member of the Texas Institute of Letters.
Retired after almost thirty years with TCU Press, twenty of them as director, Judy lives in a small cottage—just right for one and a dog—in Fort Worth, Texas with her Bordoodle Sophie. She is the mother of four and the grandmother of seven. Her hobby is cooking, and she’s learning how to cook in a postage-stamp kitchen without a stove. In fact, she wrote a cookbook about it: Gourmet on a Hot Plate.
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October 21, 2025
Are outlaws ever "good outlaws?" Well, Butch and Sundance are the good ones.
When Etta is rescued from a terrible family situation and possible murder charges as a teenager, she is looked after the madame of a brothel and raised by her. Not to that kind of life, but educated and meant to have a different life. It is there in the brothel that she meets Sundance who becomes her lover. Etta joins the Hole-in-the-Wall gang and becomes a member of the outlaw group.
While reading this book, I pictured Butch Cassidy, Sundance and Etta as they appeared in the 1969 movie. Was it that long ago??
When Etta is rescued from a terrible family situation and possible murder charges as a teenager, she is looked after the madame of a brothel and raised by her. Not to that kind of life, but educated and meant to have a different life. It is there in the brothel that she meets Sundance who becomes her lover. Etta joins the Hole-in-the-Wall gang and becomes a member of the outlaw group.
While reading this book, I pictured Butch Cassidy, Sundance and Etta as they appeared in the 1969 movie. Was it that long ago??
Displaying 1 of 1 review