Sam Bass

Best Western Historical Novel--Western Writers of America

Bryan Woolley creates a compelling story giving antihero Sam Bass a fictional life, bringing him alive through six alternating voices--Maude, the whore who was Bass' lover; Mary Matson, the African American who took him in and tended him as he lay dying; Dad Egan, the lawman who was once a father-figure to young Sam Bass but feels compelled to bring down the outlaw; Frank Johnson, who rode with Bass but left the outlaw life to reappear as a small-town doctor; and Jim Murphy, the well-meaning saloonkeeper who makes a bargain with the law and brings down Sam Bass.