Wickedest Town in the West?

Clavin, Tom.  Dodge City: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and the Wickedest Town in the American 
          West.  New York: St. Martins Press, 2017.  ISBN: 9781250071484

Is the world looking for another tale of Wyatt Earp?  Are readers looking for dirt on Bat Masterson?  Does anybody want to read about Dodge City (KS)?  Tom Clavin hopes so as he has written just that book.

In Dodge City, Clavin provides a history of the founding of Dodge City and its heyday as "the wickedest town in the West."  He provides information on how the town got its name, early history and then the arrival of the cattle from Texas leading to growth, gambling, and mayhem.  But this book is not just about the city.  It is also a history of  Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson and their circle of friends, supporters, enemies, and family. 

Tom Clavin writes a very readable biography/town history in thirty-two chapters that lay out the lives of Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson along with the story of Dodge City.  Clavin focuses his attention on the parts played by Wyatt and Bat, but does not neglect the many other lawmen, desperadoes, gamblers, buffalo hunters, soldiers, and cowboys who lived in or visited Dodge City. providing short biographies of many of them.  If you are interested in the Old West, gun fights, or notorious outlaws and lawmen, then Dodge City will entertain and enlighten you.