Mary Doria Russell

NATIONAL BESTSELLER Born to the life of a Southern gentleman, Dr. John Henry Holliday arrives on the Texas frontier hoping that the dry air and sunshine of the West will restore him to health. Soon, with few job prospects, Doc Holliday is gambling professionally with his partner, Mária Katarina Harony, a high-strung, classically educated Hungarian whore. In search of high-stakes poker, the couple hits the saloons of Dodge City. And that is where the unlikely friendship of Doc Holliday and a fearless lawman named Wyatt Earp begins— before the gunfight at the O.K. Corral links their names forever in American frontier mythology—when neither man wanted fame or deserved notoriety.

A Novel

Nicole Blazek

Not a fan of Westerns, and this was no exception. I would have liked to have known more about Doc and the OK Corral. Can't recommend this.

Tracey O’Rourke

This is the second book I am recommending this year. I have to admit I maybe a bit biased about this one. Mary Russell is someone I heard about throughout my graduate school days, and eventually met, a few years after she wrote her first novel, The Sparrow. Since I (kindof) know her, I have sought out her books as they come out. On the other hand, they are really delightful books. She won the Arthur C Clark award for The Sparrow and was nominated for a Pulitzer for A Thread of Grace. But this one may be my favorite since her first. Doc is about Doc Holliday, famous of the shootout at the OK Corral. But it is about how John Holliday became "Doc." It is about him coming to terms with the hand life has dealt him and trying to deal with his life limited by illness and circumstance. She describes it as the story of the one season of happiness in his life. I, like Russell, fell a little bit in love with Doc over the course of this novel. I wanted more.

Daryl Houston

I read Russell's Epitaph last year on a lark, not really expecting to think much of it, since I've never thought myself a reader of historical fiction. I liked that one a lot and so thought I'd try her book about Doc Holliday. I liked this one a lot too. She really made me feel like I was sitting in a room with Doc, though I think she may be helped along some by the portrayal of a different doctor in the television series Deadwood, in whose voice I can't help but hear the prototype for the voice she here gives Doc. I read this for and as pure pleasure, not really paying much attention to whether I thought it was good or bad as literature; either way, I enjoyed it and will almost certainly pick up some more of her work.

Channing Williford

After the burned body of mixed-blood boy Johnnie Sanders is discovered in 1878 Dodge City, Kansas, part-time policeman Wyatt Earp enlists the help of his professional-gambler friend Doc Holliday, in a novel that also features Doc's girlfriend, the Hungarian prostitute Kate Katarina Harony. Reprint. A best-selling novel.

Doc A Novel

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