Books 1 & 2 of The Bass Reeves Trilogy adapted for the Paramount+ miniseries Lawmen: Bass Reeves 2025 International Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society Award Winner for Historical Fiction 2023 National Indie Excellence Award Winner in Western Fiction 2023 Foreword INDIES Finalist in Historical Fiction All heroes have fatal flaws and a moment of defining hubris, but few rise from the ashes to achieve greater heights. In 1884 Deputy U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves was arrested for murder and placed among his own prisoners in Hell on the Border, the infamous federal jail in Fort Smith, Arkansas. It was the single greatest setback of his illustrious career, but it wouldn't be his last mistake or trial by fire.
In The Forsaken and the Dead we meet Reeves again. In the 1890s, past his prime, Reeves proceeds through the valleys and shadows of Indian and Oklahoma Territories. Despite his caution and innovations as a lawman and detective, his nation no longer seems a product of his own making—so much like his children and his marriage to Jennie. While a modern world implodes around him and demons from his past continue to haunt his present, he remains resolute in his faith that he can be a steady rider on a pale horse. "An excellent read."—LeRoy A. Peters, Roundup Magazine "Thompson pens this historical fiction in such a way as to make it as readable and entertaining as a dog-eared Louis L'Amour paperback. . . . As engaging as any Larry McMurtry tale."—Jimmy Henderson, Jackson Clarion-Ledger “Sidney Thompson is a master of craft. Full stop. Each sentence compels us onward with lean, restrained prose. I was completely pulled into the vortex of Bass’s world. I couldn’t put this book down. Thompson is not just a good storyteller, thank goodness, but a great one.”—Daniel Peña, author of Bang “Finally, the fictional treatment that Bass Reeves deserves! This is historical fiction of the highest order: an unwavering allegiance to the historical record combined with vivid, lyrical writing and deeply drawn characters. Sidney Thompson skillfully weaves together historical elements in this compelling story of one of the greatest lawmen to put on a badge, a sweeping saga reminiscent of Lonesome Dove or The Son . Thompson’s trilogy should be required reading for anyone who loves American historical fiction, Westerns, or just a finely told story about real-life heroes.”—Matt Bondurant, author of Oleander City and The Wettest County in the World , basis for the movie Lawless “With the spellbinding conclusion to his magnificent trilogy, Sidney Thompson has finally corrected a shameful wrong. Invisible to history and literature for far too long, Bass Reeves is risen, resurrected. In sonorous prose, with the mastery of a singular storyteller, Thompson has turned the word into flesh and has rescued Bass from the enclave of the forsaken and the dead.”—Miroslav Penkov, author of East of the West The author thanks Morgan Freeman for making a clarion call on CNN in 2010 for someone to narrate Bass Reeves's life so that Hollywood would have that story to tell. After thirteen years of research, writing, and schooling (earning his PhD in American fiction and African American narratives at the University of North Texas, in Bass's old backyard, which ensured that the telling would be as authentic as possible), Thompson at last completed his trilogy of this iconic American hero. Hollywood indeed came knocking, so thank you, Paramount+! Thank you, Taylor Sheridan and Chad Feehan and David Oyelowo! Bass is no longer whitewashed. Like Washington, Lincoln, King, and Ali, he is no longer even buried. Sidney Thompson teaches creative writing and African American literature at Texas Christian University. He is the author of the award-winning Follow the Angels, Follow the Doves: The Bass Reeves Trilogy, Book One (Bison Books, 2020) and Hell on the Border: The Bass Reeves Trilogy, Book Two (Bison Books, 2021), adapted for the Paramount+ miniseries Lawmen: Bass Reeves , directed by Taylor Sheridan and starring David Oyelowo. 1 Thatch Indian Territory was in a dry season in May of 1895, leaving Rock Creek in the Creek Nation especially shallow in its broad bed, the water steepled with rocks where turtles sunned. The three buzzards that the three men had waved away from the bank floated directly above them as if the men’s halos had loosed from their moorings from transpiration and in their haste to rise heavenward had collided to form a circling, circling chain that bound these chance souls to this moment and place, their lives to their inevitable long home—starting now. “He was there, face down in it.” The white man who’d introduced himself as Lee nearly two hours earlier in Keokuk Falls pointed with a thrusting action of his rigid coat sleeve to help Bass Reeves sight the spot. “Where it’s smooth there, betwixt the froth and them two chicken turtles stacked, that’s where
In The Forsaken and the Dead we meet Reeves again. In the 1890s, past his prime, Reeves proceeds through the valleys and shadows of Indian and Oklahoma Territories. Despite his caution and innovations as a lawman and detective, his nation no longer seems a product of his own making—so much like his children and his marriage to Jennie. While a modern world implodes around him and demons from his past continue to haunt his present, he remains resolute in his faith that he can be a steady rider on a pale horse. "An excellent read."—LeRoy A. Peters, Roundup Magazine "Thompson pens this historical fiction in such a way as to make it as readable and entertaining as a dog-eared Louis L'Amour paperback. . . . As engaging as any Larry McMurtry tale."—Jimmy Henderson, Jackson Clarion-Ledger “Sidney Thompson is a master of craft. Full stop. Each sentence compels us onward with lean, restrained prose. I was completely pulled into the vortex of Bass’s world. I couldn’t put this book down. Thompson is not just a good storyteller, thank goodness, but a great one.”—Daniel Peña, author of Bang “Finally, the fictional treatment that Bass Reeves deserves! This is historical fiction of the highest order: an unwavering allegiance to the historical record combined with vivid, lyrical writing and deeply drawn characters. Sidney Thompson skillfully weaves together historical elements in this compelling story of one of the greatest lawmen to put on a badge, a sweeping saga reminiscent of Lonesome Dove or The Son . Thompson’s trilogy should be required reading for anyone who loves American historical fiction, Westerns, or just a finely told story about real-life heroes.”—Matt Bondurant, author of Oleander City and The Wettest County in the World , basis for the movie Lawless “With the spellbinding conclusion to his magnificent trilogy, Sidney Thompson has finally corrected a shameful wrong. Invisible to history and literature for far too long, Bass Reeves is risen, resurrected. In sonorous prose, with the mastery of a singular storyteller, Thompson has turned the word into flesh and has rescued Bass from the enclave of the forsaken and the dead.”—Miroslav Penkov, author of East of the West The author thanks Morgan Freeman for making a clarion call on CNN in 2010 for someone to narrate Bass Reeves's life so that Hollywood would have that story to tell. After thirteen years of research, writing, and schooling (earning his PhD in American fiction and African American narratives at the University of North Texas, in Bass's old backyard, which ensured that the telling would be as authentic as possible), Thompson at last completed his trilogy of this iconic American hero. Hollywood indeed came knocking, so thank you, Paramount+! Thank you, Taylor Sheridan and Chad Feehan and David Oyelowo! Bass is no longer whitewashed. Like Washington, Lincoln, King, and Ali, he is no longer even buried. Sidney Thompson teaches creative writing and African American literature at Texas Christian University. He is the author of the award-winning Follow the Angels, Follow the Doves: The Bass Reeves Trilogy, Book One (Bison Books, 2020) and Hell on the Border: The Bass Reeves Trilogy, Book Two (Bison Books, 2021), adapted for the Paramount+ miniseries Lawmen: Bass Reeves , directed by Taylor Sheridan and starring David Oyelowo. 1 Thatch Indian Territory was in a dry season in May of 1895, leaving Rock Creek in the Creek Nation especially shallow in its broad bed, the water steepled with rocks where turtles sunned. The three buzzards that the three men had waved away from the bank floated directly above them as if the men’s halos had loosed from their moorings from transpiration and in their haste to rise heavenward had collided to form a circling, circling chain that bound these chance souls to this moment and place, their lives to their inevitable long home—starting now. “He was there, face down in it.” The white man who’d introduced himself as Lee nearly two hours earlier in Keokuk Falls pointed with a thrusting action of his rigid coat sleeve to help Bass Reeves sight the spot. “Where it’s smooth there, betwixt the froth and them two chicken turtles stacked, that’s where