The gunfight that never ends

The famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral lasted a matter of seconds, yet the buildup to it took months to develop and the memory haunted survivors for the rest of their lives. Mary Doria Russell tells the whole story in Epitaph, her 2015 novel that may hold more truth than fiction, perhaps even more truth than most historical accounts of the gunfight.

The book might be seen as a sequel to Doc, her outstanding earlier novel about Doc Holliday in Dodge City. Now Doc and the Earp brothers have moved to Tombstone, hoping some of the bountiful silver mine money will wind up in their pockets. Instead they get nothing but trouble.

This time Russell's focus is on Wyatt Earp and she writes quite a different sort of novel, hardly seeming like a sequel at all. This one is longer, full of more characters and more story threads, all weaving their way toward the O.K. Corral.

Much of the story involves a runaway Jewish girl from San Francisco named Sadie Marcuse, who now calls herself Josie. An actress passing through Tombstone, she becomes attached to Johnny Behan, an up-and-coming politician who will become sheriff. Later she becomes drawn to Wyatt, whom she realizes is a much better man, more likely to remain faithful to her and less likely to beat her. Her desire for a faithful man does not keep her from turning, briefly, to prostitution, however.

The Josie factor is one that leads to the gunfight. Another is Kate, the woman Doc loves when she is away yet can't get along with when she is around. Her actions, too, cause trouble. Doc, despite his frailty from tuberculosis, has a reputation as a troublemaker, another factor. Then there are the Cow Boys. a group of cattle rustlers, robbers and troublemakers who always seem to have solid alibis when the law closes in. And when Johnny becomes sheriff, he becomes their ally rather than their foe. All these factors and others lead to that gunfight.

After the gunfight and the subsequent shooting death of Morgan Earp, Wyatt, who formerly had been the most quiet, devout and civil of the Earps, becomes a killing machine, determined to wipe out the Cow Boys singlehandedly, if necessary

Russell follows Wyatt all the way to his death, Sadie still at his side, years later, the gunfight at the O.K. Corral still the source of both his fame and his infamy.

Russell's novel probably will not be the last word on the gunfight, but anything else will have to be very, very good to top it.