My On Crime Fiction, True Crime & Thrillers Column: My Q&A With Mark Lee Gardner, Author Of 'Brothers Of The Gun: Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, And The reckoning In Tombstone'

I have long been interested in Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, having watched as a young boy the old TV show with Hugh O’Brian as Wyatt Earp, and later watching John Ford's great film, My Darling Clemintine and other films based loosely on the legendary lawman and the famous gunfight at the OK Corral. 

The 1993 film Tombstone with Kurt Russel and Val Kilmer is one of my favorite films, and I’ve watched it many times.  

I began reading about Earp and Holliday and other books about the history of the Wild West as a teenager and I still read them to this day. 

One fine book I recently read about Earp and Holliday is Mark Lee Gardner’s Brothers of the Gun: Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and the Reckoning in Tombstone.        

I reached out to Mark Lee Gardner (seen in the above photo) and asked him why he wrote the book. 

Gardner: No previous book had focused on the friendship between Wyatt and Doc, nor had they been the subject of a dual biography. The biggest moments in their lives occurred when they were together, be it Dodge City or Tombstone, and you simply can’t tell the story of either individual without talking about the other. 

How did you research the book? 

Gardner: I seek out both primary archival sources and the locales where my protagonists spent time. This entailed research trips to Iowa, Missouri, Arizona, and California. I also strive to find sources that either haven’t been used before or were poorly used by previous historians: letters, diaries, contemporary newspaper accounts, etc. I never write books by only reading other books (that’s what AI does), and you’ll never find me quoting another historian in my books. I provide my own perspective/interpretation based on the primary sources available to me. 

How would you describe Wyatt Earp? 

Gardner: Tall, mild-mannered, not known to brag, ambitious, rarely drank liquor, exceptional lawman, accomplished professional gambler, ladies’ man, and an extremely brave individual. Fellow lawman Bat Masterson wrote that Wyatt was “one of the few men I personally knew in the West in the early days whom I regarded as absolutely destitute of fear.” 

How would you describe Doc Holliday?

Gardner: Like Wyatt, also mild-mannered or quiet – except when drinking, at which time he could be hot-headed, quarrelsome, and dangerous. Always a sharp dresser and a gentleman to ladies. He suffered from tuberculosis for years, which finally took him at the young age of 36. An only child, he looked upon the Earps as the brothers he never had, especially Wyatt. “Doc’s whole heart and soul was wrapped up in Wyatt Earp,” wrote Bat Masterson, “and he was always ready to stake his life in defense of any cause in which Wyatt was interested.” 

Why were these two very different men fast friends? 

Gardner; According to Wyatt, their friendship began in Dodge City in August 1878, when Doc, a revolver in each hand, saved Wyatt from a crowd of cowboys about to do him deadly harm. Wyatt firmly believed that Doc saved his life. “It was because of this episode,” Wyatt explained years later, “that I became the friend of Doc Holliday ever after.” 

What was Tombstone like during the Wyatt Earp era?

Gardner: A true boomtown: exciting, violent, and corrupt with saloons and gambling halls open day and night. Silver mining was the economic driver of the town, and despite its remoteness, any number of delicacies were readily available to its inhabitants, from fresh oysters to the best cigars to the finest wines and champagnes.

Why has the story of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday continued to fascinate readers and film goers after all these years?

Gardner: Put simply, it’s an incredible tale featuring larger-than-life characters, the Old West’s most famous and unusual friendship, and the greatest gunfight of all time.

Do you have a favorite film about Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday? If so, why is the film your favorite?

Gardner: I think it must be Tombstone (1993), with Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer playing Wyatt and Doc. I believe it’s the best at conveying the depth of their friendship, although the film, like most about the O.K. Corral gunfight, fails to explain the origins of that friendship. Val Kilmer’s portrayal of Doc is truly memorable. But let’s not forget Dennis Quaid’s Doc in the Kevin Costner’s film Wyatt Earp (1994), which was alsPaul Davis On Crime: My On Crime Fiction, True Crime & Thrillers Columnso quite impressive.

Please tell us about your background and career. 

Gardner: I was born and raised in Missouri and spent my summers during college and graduate school as a National Park Service seasonal ranger at Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site, Colorado, and Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, West Virginia. I next worked as a historic site administrator on the Santa Fe Trail in Trinidad, Colorado. I’ve since published several books on iconic Westerners, from Billy the Kid to Jesse James to Sitting Bull. In addition to my writing, I’m also a professional musician specializing in the historic music of the Old West. My most recent album is Outlaws: Songs of Robbers, Rustlers, and Rogues, available on Spotify and other streaming apps.

Thank you for speaking to us. 

Brothers of the Gun is published by Dutton. 

Note: You can read m other columns via the link below:

Paul Davis On Crime: My On Crime Fiction, True Crime & Thrillers Columns

Yesterday's Spy Writer: My On Crime Fiction, True Crime & Thrillers On The New Batch Of Len Deighton's Reissued Paperback Spy Thrillers

When I was a teenager back in the 1960s, I was a huge fan of crime and spy thrillers (and I remain so today). 

I was weaned on Ian Fleming, and after he died in 1964 and I had read all of his James Bond novels and short stories, I looked for other spy thrillers to read, especially British spy thrillers. 

I read and enjoyed Eric Ambler, Graham Greene and John le Carre. I also read another British spy thriller writer named Len Deighton. 

Deighton’s protagonist in his first series of spy thrillers, in contrast to Ian Fleming’s high-living James Bond, was a working-class smart aleck. 

Deighton employed a first-person unnamed narrator for The Ipcress File and the other early thrillers. I liked the Deighton narrator and his sardonic voice. I also liked Deighton's clever plots and his vivid descriptions of characters, places, things and food (Deighton is an accomplished cook).   

When Michael Caine portrayed the unnamed spy in the 1960s film versions of The Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain, Caine suggested to the producers that they call him Harry Palmer. I thought Michael Caine nailed the character, and I enjoyed the films nearly as much as Deighton's novels.     

Over the years I’ve read nearly all of Deighton’s novels, including his WWII military history novels and his clever alternative history novel, SS-GB, which takes place in a post-WWI Briton that the Nazis have defeated and now occupy. 

Deighton, today at 96, must be pleased that Grove Atlantic is reissuing his novels. I have copies of the reissued The Ipcress Files, Funeral in Berlin, and SS-GB, three of my favorite Deighton thrillers, and I recently reread them. I believe they hold up nicely after all these years. 

And this August Grove Atlantic will reissue Deighton’s Yesterday's Spy, Billion Dollar Brain, An Expensive Place to Die and Spy Story. 

Grove Atlantic offers descriptions of the upcoming reissued thrillers: 

Steve Champion as a flamboyant businessman, former leader of an anti-Nazi network in the Second World War and a man surrounded by mysteries. There are rumors he is still in the spying business. The Department is nervous, so Champion’s oldest wartime ally is sent to the South of France to investigate. 

It’s time to re-open the file on Yesterday’s Spy ($17 paperback, 224 pages; ISBN: 978-0-8021-6325-7; Aug. 12, 2025), even if that could mean killing an old friend.

Billion Dollar Brain ($17 paperback; 304 pages; ISBN: 978-0-8021-6327-1; Aug. 12, 2025) is a classic spy thriller of lethal computer-age intrigue and a maniac’s private cold war, featuring the unnamed narrator from The IPCRESS File. He travels from the bone-freezing winter of Helsinki, Riga and Leningrad to the stifling heat of Texas, and soon finds himself tangling with enemies on both sides of the Iron Curtain.   

In An Expensive Place To Die ($17 paperback; 240 pages; ISBN: 978-0-8021-6323-3; Aug. 12, 2025), an unnamed spy is sent to Paris to deliver a file of nuclear secrets to a French doctor but soon finds himself sucked into a twilight world of sex, blackmail and hidden motive, where friend and enemy become indistinguishable.  

After six weeks in a nuclear submarine gathering computer data on Soviet activity, the mysterious, bespectacled spy known as Patrick Armstrong is desperate to return home in Spy Story ($17 paperback; 224 pages; ISBN: 978-0-8021-6319-6; Aug. 12, 2025). But when he arrives at his London flat, it appears to be occupied by someone who looks just like him—and he finds himself propelled into the heart of a conspiracy stretching from the remote Scottish Highlands to the Arctic ice. 

Grove Atlantic also offers a brief bio of Len Deighton (seen in the above photo from the 1960s): 

At the Royal College of Art his teachers called him subversive, but it was his first novel — The Ipcress File — that sealed his reputation as an iconoclast. Ian Fleming called it his “Book of the Year.” Through humor, characters with real depth, and impeccable research, Len Deighton’s original voice revolutionized the modern spy thriller. 

The enormous success of The Ipcress File and the subsequent Harry Palmer spy films made Michael Caine an international star. Bomber (perhaps his greatest novel) calmly and powerfully narrates the horror of war. SS-GB, a dystopian alternative history of the Nazi occupation of Britain, challenges us to think about how we relate to authoritarian government. 

Deighton is best remembered for Cold War spy novels with defiant, working-class heroes, including the famed Bernard Sampson series and the Pat Armstrong Quartet. Deighton’s work has entered the zeitgeist and that influence can be seen today from Motörhead’s album “Bomber,” to Austin Powers’ glasses, to references to his work in the films of Quentin Tarantino.

Born in 1929, Deighton is acclaimed as not just one of the greatest thriller writers of the 20th Century but a military historian, cookery writer, and graphic artist. His extraordinary career spanned four decades, selling over 30 million books, being published in 20 languages, and never falling out of print.