The two wrote letters, maintaining a correspondence over many years that is one of the great lost treasures of biographical history, for not one of those letters has ever been found. It is entirely possible that each of them consigned those papers to flames before dying, to keep them and their confidences utterly private: This is mine alone; all my life has been on public display, but this is I hold in my heart and nowhere else on earth, and I take it with me to heaven.

In alternating chapters, Estleman depicts these two, the outrageous scoundrel of the wild west and the girl from the island of Jersey who, after a disastrous first season in London , regroups, marries, and becomes a national – and international – sensation and obsession. Both won and lost fortunes and recreated themselves from necessity, both were nearly irresistible to the opposite sex. Roy was hugely popular with the ladies of California and Texas and literally owed them his life, as various senoritas fed him when he was incarcerated, protected him from irate seekers after retribution, and possibly cut the rope that was stretching his neck that one time in his younger days. A number of them probably bore his children, and Roy Bean was as about as fond of children, whether they were his own or not, legitimate or il- , as he was of ladies. For her part, Lillie had a single daughter, probably not her husband’s, to whom she was devoted. Her male admirers included artists, writers, politicians and royalty, and, on very rare occasions, other women. One of her great champions was the wit Oscar Wilde, who guided her through many social mazes and introduced her to the men who would save her from direst poverty by putting her on stage. She was not a great actress like Sarah Bernhardt or Ellen Terry – who gave her career-saving advice on their first meeting – but she was a very great beauty, in voice and composure as well as face and figure.

Both led fascinating and turbulent lives. One told prodigious lies and the other was prodigiously lied about; he realized truth was often what you made it, and she proved that some truths are best ignored. They both defied conventions. He was deliberately uncouth when he wasn’t being theatrically flamboyant. She rode her own horses in races. When he died, Roy bequeathed his beloved Colt revolver her to her, and she cherished it to her dying day.

Estleman vividly describes their ups and downs, the people in their lives, their marriages, alliances and betrayals. He is careful to distinguish the facts from the fiction in his account, and there is very little of the latter: just the subjective views and a few letters. His turns of phrase are memorable, and he makes men and women, dead for decades, live and walk and breathe and love again. Oh, well done, sir! ~~ Chris R. Paige