To Hell on a Fast Horse: Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett, and the Epic Chase to Justice in the Old WestIn the late 1870's, New Mexico Territory represented some of the only frontier left in the United States, and men like Lew Wallace, the territorial governor, and others were determined to tame it. In a land where might makes right, law and order was not necessarily a tool to help Good defeat Evil, as much as it was an implement of those who held power to club their adversaries with.Mark Lee Gardner in To Hell on a Fast Horse examines these various issues as they created the legend of Billy the Kid and the man who killed him, Pat Garrett. His meticulous research shows the human side of Billy - how it was his strengths of character that led him into the life of a murderer and fugitive, and that it was weakness of character of those who held the reins of power that forced him on and on. Rather than the ruthless character that the dimestore novels created, Mr. Gardner's work shows Billy's better half - his loyalty, his ability to love his fellow man, and his passions on which the stage of the Wild West forced him to make decisions that he did. In Billy's mind, had the authorities simply left him alone, then he would have lived a simple and virtuous life. There is even a chance, from the depths of Mr. Gardner's research, that this may have held at least a nugget of truth.Into the foray between those who wished to banish the outlaws of New Mexico Territory and those who felt their existence imperiled by the law came Pat Garrett. We learn from Mr. Gardner all about Pat's formative years, and the ambiguity in his relationship to Billy and others in his gang. One story in particular illustrates this. Although Pat doggedly pursued Billy until he was able to capture him, he promised safe passage to justice for Billy and his gang. In order to keep that promise, Pat and his posse had to stand off a sheriff and his deputies as well as the entire town who were determined to lynch the prisoners. To save them, he would have armed them if necessary. Throughout the book, we read again and again of Garrett's rugged strength, physically, but spiritually as well. He took on the mission of bringing Billy the Kid to justice because it was his duty to do so. What I learned from Mr. Gardner's thorough research was that it was this very adherence to principle that led to the tragic death of The Man Who Shot Billy the Kid. Pat Garrett was not allowed to fade gently into the sunset as another famous lawman, Wyatt Earp, was.To me, Mr. Gardner's ability to round out the character of his chief protagonists was paramount. We learn that Billy's most famous exploit, his escape from the jail from which he was sentenced to hang, was as much a function of the arrogance of his jailers as it was Billy's intrinsic escape talents. And his brutal murder of two deputies was a reaction to their cruelty as well. And Billy's final moments, Pat Garrett's most famous deed, we learn, was far more an accident and an act of Billy staying his own hand rather than to risk harming people for whom he cared deeply. Pat was fortunate, Billy was not. What surprised me was how the same element of disregard for the law in order to protect the established order persisted well into the twentieth century. Ironically, Pat died at the hands of those whose abuse of power by owning the law were the philosophical descendants of Billy's original protagonists.Yet with all of the research that Mr. Gardner clearly undertook in creating this work - much of which is detailed in an index at the end of the book - To Hell on a Fast Horse was remarkably readable. It was the story not only of the two men who found themselves inextricably bound, but of the times that forced them together. Other critics of the book complain that too much time is spent discussing Pat Garrett's fate once Billy was gone. To me, it was vital to know how the forces that led to Billy's death were the cause of Pat's death as well, more than thirty years later. That no one ever was made to account for Pat's coldblooded murder brings the irony and the cautionary tale Mark Gardner weaves to a full circle.Bravo, Mr Gardner for this wonderful piece of work! I highly recommend it to those who want to know what living in the lawless New Mexico Territory in the post-Civil War era was like. I can hardly wait for Mark Gardner's next opus.