He came from the American South, a gentleman by breeding, a dentist by training, a gambler by vocation. But as Dr. John H. Holliday, a man fleeing from his tragic past, drifted across the West, living among some of the roughest men on the frontier, word spread quickly he never walked away from a fight, and he never drew too late. Now, from Dodge City to Denver and Cheyenne, from boomtown to sinkholes, Doc Holliday was driven by the demons of his past, a skilled gambler and a seasoned mankiller - his name was known and feared long before the O. K. Corral. The story of a man who spoke softly and carried a lightning gun, this is Matt Braun's extraordinary chronicle of the West's complex and legendary figure.