Deadwood

A Novel

By: Peter Dexter

Narrated by: J. Rodney Turner

Deadwood, Dakota Territories, 1876: Legendary gunman Wild Bill Hickcock and his friend Charlie Utter have come to the Black Hills town of Deadwood fresh from Cheyenne, fleeing an ungrateful populace. Bill, aging and sick but still able to best any man in a fair gunfight, just wants to be left alone to drink and play cards. But in this town of played-out miners, bounty hunters, upstairs girls, Chinese immigrants, and various other entrepreneurs and miscreants, he finds himself pursued by a vicious sheriff, a perverse whore man bent on revenge, and a besotted Calamity Jane.

Fueled by liquor, sex, and violence, this is the real Wild West, unlike anything portrayed in the dime novels that first told its story.

©1986 Pete Dexter (P)2019 Tantor

Great cowboy story!!!

Great story. Well read. The author brings it all together in the final chapter in a way that makes you feel good about the whole story.

I’m sorry mama!

Enjoyed the book very much, Lot of sad unfortunate things, but much great humor and insight to human nature!

Not the Deadwood on HBO

Great novel. A different an very interesting story and character development from the HBO series “Deadwood”.

Good narrator at least

A little too graphic and vulgar for my tastes, but the narrator they chose was perfect.

Absolutely loved it

Great story, well developed characters. I was caught up in the authenticity of it all. Great narrator's voice. Will listen to this one again.

A different story of Deadwood

I am a fan of the HBO series Deadwood, and as such, knowing the book had very little to do with the story in the series, was hesitant to purchase Mr. Dexter’s version. I am very glad I did. An excellent tale, I enjoyed the words as written by Mr. Dexter and as narrated by Mr. Turner and highly recommend it to anyone who loves good stories.

This is more of a bodice ripper than a western.

The pacing of this novel is perfectly matched to the cadence of the narrator and can be described as ploddingly slow. A lot of the plot turns on well recognize history, But I have no idea whether the intimate details of the numerous encounters are accurate or not, and frankly don't care. I finished it, that's my policy, but I'm not better off for having done so.

The Show is Better

The show has much better, more well-rounded characters (even though they share the same names). A look at the life of a western town, but it didn’t really feel like a Western.

Wonderful Prose, Difficult Narration

The narrator used far too slow and accented a delivery. Overall, that made the book murky and difficult. Details kept getting lost in the drone. Given that there are no chapter breaks, just several long sections, this made the book longer and slower than it needed to be.

enjoyed it from the first person view point. different from most you read. interesting read. Highly recommend to others.

Just enjoyed it from beginning to end. interesting story, well written. covered the people who were involved in Wild Bill's life. wish there had been more on Wild Bill my only recommendation. and more on history of Deadwood itsself.