Mini: Wyatt: Doc Holliday's Account of an Intimate Friendship by Dale Chase

Wyatt: Doc Holliday's Account
of an Intimate Friendship

Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday are best known for their gunplay at the OK Corral, but there is far more to their story. The remarkable friendship between upright lawman and southern gentleman turned gambler and killer ignites when Doc saves Wyatt's life in Dodge City and escalates into passion as the two move west to Tombstone where lawlessness reigns. As they work toward bringing to justice a band of rustlers terrorizing the area, they are drawn into the infamous gunfight at the OK Corral and are jailed for murder.

They are cleared of the charges, but the murder of Morgan Earp sets Wyatt on a vendetta where, with Doc at his side, he turns killer not only to avenge his brother but to rid the region of the outlaw menace. The price is high, however. Now wanted men, Doc and Wyatt are forced to flee Arizona, and it is while on the run that they find their relationship deepening into what is ultimately a tragic love.

I seem to love almost everything Dale Chase writes. At this point I think I may have read almost all her short stories set in the West. The key word is "almost" because I'm still searching through Chase's backlist to find them, and that includes her short stories published in Bear erotic anthologies which are usually set in the West. But, an erotic novel by Dale Chase queering Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday? I just knew it was going to be a winner for me!

Chase has such talent for writing historical westerns and that talent is in full display in Wyatt: Doc Holliday's Account of an Intimate Friendship. She weaves the whole history of what happens in Tombstone so well with her own fictional account of Doc and Wyatt's intimate relationship that by the end, the reader wants to believe Chase's version. There are plenty of erotic scenes (with enough spit and poke to please the crowds), just as there are violent scenes on the streets of Tombstone, desperate chases on horseback, and mean, cold gunfights between our heroes and the Cowboys. The sexy scenes after the killing and the chasing are always the best ones!

I love Wyatt and Doc, and Chase brings them and the secondary characters to life in this erotic piece. I love the details she incorporates into her story, the characterization and excellent western atmosphere. Expect lots of erotic scenes to accompany all the cocky posturing and spare macho dialog. If you like westerns, good historical details, great writing, and erotica, you'll love this one. (November 6, 2012, Bold Strokes Books) Grade: B+

Collections by Dale Chase:
If The Spirit Moves You: Ghostly Gay Erotica
The Company He Keeps: Victorian Gentlemen's Erotica