Growing up in the Midwest, I was immediately drawn to read this book. Why? The West has has alway seemed to me a place where the history was either surviving — getting through the desert to where people could live and farm, yet I heard about cattle rustling and outlaws I wanted a look at the history of the Wild West as the other part I heard about was the outlaws and wondered where they could find a place safe for them. I can actually say that now I know more about the “bandits” or outlaws that lived in the West. The history is very well written.

An interesting tale of bandits in the old west as well as the lawmen who pursued them. The stories are full of life and the addition of firsthand accounts really added to the stories. A great read for the old west enthusiast.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Wild West! Cowboys and Indians! Rustlers and train robbers! All the stuff of Hollywood movies, right? Well maybe, but often not. As Tom Clavin illustrates so well in Bandit Heaven, Hollywood got a lot wrong when screen writers and directors take history and put it on the big screen, particularly in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). So to get a glimpse behind the tinsel, dive in with Tom Clavin.

Tom Clavin opens the book with an 1899 Wild Bunch train robbery, laying out how it was planned and how it occurred in the Prologue. The book itself is laid out in three acts. Act I - Heaven on Earth - provides the background and setting for Brown's Hole, Hole-in-th-Wall, and Robbers Roost and the early outlaws. The reader learns about the cattle and horse rustling business and the conflict between cattle barons and homesteaders and sheep herders. Act II - Leader of the Pack - introduces Robert Leroy Parker born on April 13, 1866, a Friday, to British Mormon immigrants in Utah. He grew up working with livestock and drifted into rustling and the outlaw life where he later acquired the nickname Butch Cassidy. He was joined on the outlaw trail by Elzy Lay, an Ohio boy, Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, from Pennsylvania, who became the Sundance Kid, and Harvey Alexander Logan from Iowa, also know as "Kid Curry." Then there the women like Ethel Place and the sisters Josie and Ann Bassett who sometimes accompanied the gang. Act III - The Lawman Trail - discusses the strange evolution of law in the west and the role of vigilantism and the Pinkerton Detective Agency. These chapters also highlight individuals such as Charlie Siringo, Joseph Shelby LeFors, John T. Pope, and others who chased outlaws, infiltrated union organizations, solved murders, and brought in fugitives from justice. Act IV - Fall From Heaven - covers the end of the outlaw life. As more folks settled the West and telegraphs spread alongside the railroads, it became harder for outlaws to disappear after a robbery. Bank note numbers would be circulated around the country and folks were getting nabbed in strange locations when they tried to spend their ill-gotten gains. Also, the bandits did themselves no favors when a group visited Fort Worth (TX) for a wedding and had a group photo taken which got used as advertising by the store. That photo would lead to the arrest and or death of a number of the Wild Bunch. This slow closing of the noose led Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid and Ethel Place to move way south to Argentina where they managed to set up a ranch until their past and old ways caught up with them and closed the book on some of the most famous outlaws of the Wild West.

So if you have an interest in the "true" Wild West of outlaws and rustlers, pick up Tom Clavin's Bandit Heaven and indulge yourself. You will not regret it!

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the chance to read this title

A deep dive down the hole of desperadoes and people who skirted around the edge of the law in the late 19th early 20th centuries.
Clavin delivers an impartial assessment of each character.
It’s an informative read about people and place and experiences that are oft romanticized and glossed over in books and movies.
They lived rough lives while some thrived others tended to wait on luck to carry them through.

The link below is my full spoiler free of Bandit Heaven by Tom Calvin. If you need more information please feel free to reach I to me.

https://youtu.be/WfI6upebu5E

Thanks to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for this free ARC in return for my honest review.

Not his best work in my opinion. Very slow and meandering pace, and I thought there would be more about Butch and Sundance. Well researched, and told of many other outlaws who hid in the Hole in the Wall area, but just not up to authors prior work.

Bandit Heaven, the hole in the wall gangs in the final chapter of the Wild West by Tom Clavin, the book is mainly about Cassidy and the Sundance kid but in the beginning we also get to hear about George “ Big nose” parrot. Although and experienced outlaw he is also known for his death in the strange uses of his body parts after it. I didn’t know in all the westerns I read when they talk about the hole in the wall or an outlaw safety spot that one really existed and leave it to the author someone who I would love to spend time with just so I could pick his brains about the Wild West anything negative I have to say about the book would be minimal in of no comparison to the greatness that’s inside of it. Tom Klavan has a way of writing a nonfiction story that has the reader Justice wrapped up in it as if it were a great western. If you ever wondered where sidewinders, gunslingers in outlaws took a break from being chased and Honda down then you definitely need to read this book about the hole in the wall. What I found most interesting is that it wasn’t just outlaws who lived there. #NetGalley, #SaintMartinsPress, #TomKlavon,#BanditHeaven,

This is an excellent overview of the bandit culture in the Old West. It deals with more than just them Cassidy and Sundance gang from the title. It includes tales of other bandits and robberies in other parts of the West. Well written and engaging, the author also supports his scholarship with notes and documentation. Highly recommended for all ages.

Bandit Heaven: The Hole-in-the-Wall Gang and the Final Chapter of the Wild West by Tom Clavin is a thrilling true story of an infamous hangout for bandits, thieves and murderers of the Wild West and the lawmen who pursued them. Known collectively as “Bandit Heaven,” Robbers Roost, Brown’s Hole and Hole in the Wall were remote locations in Wyoming and Utah that harbored the dangerous men of the 1880s and 1890s. The most famous of these bandits were the gregarious Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the silent sidekick. Everyone knows the famous 1969 film starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, but who were the real Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid? As many outlaws of the time would be dead by the turn of the 20th century, only Cassidy and Sundance escaped to meet their infamous end in South America.
Whenever I see Tom Clavin’s name on a book cover, I know it will be a detailed and engaging historical account of a time and place long forgotten and even romanticized through Hollywood. The actual Wild West only lasted approximately 30 years; however, it is a time most talked about and fantasized about especially in literature and on the big screen. Cowboys on the range and the outlaws who terrorized it. Bandit Heaven is a thrilling read, opening with a terrifying train robbery, then taking readers back in time to set up the characters. Where did these men come from? What brought them on the path of infamy? And who were the men who pursued them? Bandit Heaven is filled with action that will pull readers in and learn fact from fiction and legends. I highly, highly recommend Bandit Heaven.

Bandit Heaven: The Hole-in-the-Wall Gang and the Final Chapter of the Wild West
is available in hardcover, eBook and audiobook

This is a nonfiction book that everyone, whether a lover of the western genre or not, will love. Most people have gathered their knowledge of this era.....1880-1890.....from television where a pretty face was promoted over the interesting lives these men and women lived. Lawmen or outlaw, they made their livings with a gun. Tom Clavin is well known for insuring his books are well researched and entertaining without stretching the facts. The individuals lived in an era where they placed their lives on the line everyday and the stories of how the law chased the outlaws into smaller and smaller hideouts allowed the settlers to reach what would become the western United States. I often recommend Clavin's books and gift them to my unsuspecting relatives, turning them into western fans too.

For more reviews and bookish posts visit: https://www.ManOfLaBook.com

Bandit Heaven: The Hole-in-the-Wall Gangs and the Final Chapter of the Wild West by Tom Calvin tells about remote locations in Wyoming and Utah and the criminals that used to hide at. Mr. Calvin is a best selling author, editor, and commentator.

There are many myths about the American Wild West, most of them romantic notions of honorable gunslingers. Train robbers, religious persons, law enforcing sheriffs, and of course cowboys are part of that myths which has defined the West has perpetuated not just in American, but the whole world.

This is an engaging book, filled with adventure, history, and wit. In fact, the things I truly liked in Bandit Heaven by Tom Calvin are the dark jokes, zingers, and the fact that the author couldn’t let a good story get lost in the narrative.

While the book mostly deals with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s Hole in the Wall gang, there are plenty of other fascinating characters in it. Many of them show up and disappear after the author managed to enthrall us with their escapades, to the point where often I forgot I was reading history and not a novel.

Focusing on outlaw the hideouts of Hole in the Wall, Brown’s Hole, and Robbers Roost, the book mostly takes place in those areas, today around Utah, Colorado and Wyoming. Between robbing trains, and rustling (stealing) horses and cattle, the outlaws worked on farms, and even had families.

The book, as the title indicates, is about the sunset of the Wild West. The outlaws can no longer outrun justice, and technology has changed the ways of the world.

I felt this book gave me a better understanding of how the West was, it’s mystic, charm, and eventual ending. The author obviously has a passion for the subject, as he shares his enthusiasm on every page.

I love reading about American history and the Old West is one of my favorite eras to read about. I believe this is my fourth book by Tom Clavin and I have some of his backlist titles on my shelves of books to read.

In Bandit Heaven, Clavin focuses on some of the most well known horse thieves, cattle rustlers, train and bank robbers and all of their favorite places to hide out from the law. Naturally, Buch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are front and center, along with a few other well known names that were roaming around Utah and Wyoming in the mid to late 1890’s.

Clavin left no stone unturned as to what was happening in the area during those years. With the railroad coming through and the telegraph and postal service getting more advanced, the outlaws were finding it more difficult to make a clean getaway from their crimes. Plus, the Pinkerton’s, the Rangers and many area sheriffs were on the lookout for the outlaws.

I learned much information I was not aware of and enjoyed the background given for many of the people named in the book. This was an enjoyable read and really brought back the Old West sense of place.

Many thanks to Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am happy to give my honest review and recommend this to other like-minded readers.

Whoosh, what a book!! Tom Clavin has become my new favorite author and has created an interest in the "wild, wild, west" that I 1. didn't know I wanted, and 2. never expected to totally love [I am currently adding ALLLLLLL his books to my groaning TBR]. I have never loved "westerns", so I never thought that I would love "western books"... I was oh so wrong.

This book mostly focuses on Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and all that ran with them, the places they hid at, their crimes, misdemeanors, and shenanigans, and how they escaped the law until they didn't.

Expertly researched and brilliantly written [ I was never, ever bored, though I was often shaking my head in disbelief at what was happening on the page], this was a spectacular read that I highly recommend, especially if you have any kind of interest in the wild west and all who ran it.

Ahhh, Johnny Heller. One of my absolute favorite narrators; he once again does a superb job here. He brings the men [and women] to life and tells the story in such a way you just don't want to quit listening. Once again sir, very well done.

I was invited to read/review this by St. Martin's Press and I thank them, Tom Clavin, Johnny Heller - Narrator, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for providing the eBook and audiobook ARC's in exchange for an honest review.

I received an advance reading copy (arc) of this book from NetGalley.com and the publisher in exchange for a fair review. Author Tom Clavin has done a fabulous job researching the western frontier. He has been able to separate fact from fiction and bring to life the infamous outlaws that roamed what we now call the Wild West. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the details Clavin provides about Robert LeRoy Parker (aka Butch Cassidy) and Harry Alonzo Longabaugh (aka The Sundance Kid) are entertaining and insightful. But he doesn't stop there as he includes other famous bandits, like Kid Curry. From cattle rustling to bank/train robberies, there is never a dull moment. Clavin's narrative is sprinkled with his humor and provides a unique glimpse into what it must have been like to ride with the Hole-in-the-Wall Gangs during their heyday. Sadly, this is the last installment of his Wild West books. I've read them all and enjoyed each and every one. If you're looking for the skinny on some of America's most notorious bad boys, check them out here. You will not only get an education, but the details are sure to bring on a smile if not a laugh or two.

Strengths:
I think the topic (cowboys and the very end of the Wild, Wild West) is a super interesting one – and a timely one given the recent resurgence of Western style, fashion, and culture in modern pop culture. I do feel like this era is relatively less-chronicled than other ones, so I really appreciated the chance to learn more. Another strength is you can tell by reading this book that the author takes a lot of personal joy and interest in this history, especially in uncovering side characters and tangential events that history may have forgotten – and that, as a reader, is contagious.

Weaknesses:
My biggest struggle with this book is figuring out where we were in time. The author talks about the full lives on most of the people he mentions in this book starting with their childhoods – which is enjoyable to nosy readers like myself who want the full picture – but it also makes it very difficult to have a strong sense of time and overall narrative movement while reading. I wish that ultimately there had been an overall more linear narrative structure. Another flag – I would have just loved a little more detail/color on the women of the Wild West as well!

Overall rating: 3.6/5 stars – worth a read!

Link to my review: https://www.tiktok.com/@lucy_readss/photo/7425362018233896238

Bandit Heaven The Hole-in-the-Wall Gangs and the Final Chapter of the Wild West by Tom Clavin was received directly from the publisher and I chose to review it. The "Old West", when portrayed in television and movies seems so, so long ago, while in actuality as I was growing up, I actually knew people who had "lived" the Old West way of life. I had read this authors books before and will continue to search his works out. This book is an exciting read, about characters we have all heard of, and some we haven't. These characters all lead to the true end of the "Wild West." This book focus on three locations where outlaws could hide out and it focuses a lot on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, told in kind of a history book way of writing. If you, or someone you buy gifts for enjoys Westerns, true US history or even tales of the Wild West, certainly give this book a buy. With the holiday season fast approaching, you probably know someone who would love this book.

Ride your way through history in this thrilling bandit adventure!

Bandit Heaven takes you through the hideouts, major players, and the build-up of the west. Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, Kid Curry, and Black Jack are just a few that are featured. From religious movements moving west, to the train and bank robberies, the American West holds a romantic view. The reality was anything but. Bloodshed, lawmen, and cowboys roamed the open range, looking for work, getting into altercations, and defining our view of the cowboy and rancher in history. However, we are also going to see the rise of the Pinkertons in the west, and the search for the holdouts who were unwilling to give up their criminal ways. From homesteads to hideouts, join the ride into history.

I could not put this book down! I devoured this book in one during one sitting. Tom Clavin has created a work that not only brings the American West into focus, but humanizes the outlaws and those were involved in their daily lives. The creation of the hideouts, known locations that these men could meld into, and wait out some of the heat, was pretty interesting. I knew about one, but had not heard of some of the other locations.

Getting the background on some movements, such as the Mormons and how they fit into the story, was enlightening. It helps to fit some pieces of the puzzle for those who are not familiar with this history.

While we hold a very romantic view of the west, and the cowboy, the true stories and struggles of those who forged, lived, and died are compelling. Add in our bandits, and the west booms to life, leaving death behind them.

Absolutely a great read, and one that is going to be at the top of my list for this year! I cannot recommend this book enough!

A rather good read, full of facts about Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, Ethel and many more. I love westerns and this one also has a lot of back knowledge of bank robbers and killers. My only complaint is Mr. Clavin doesn’t really write a “story”; he writes a history book. Granted we learn a lot, but I wish he would write it as if the characters are telling the story. Otherwise, another enjoyable book with a whole lot of information in it. Comes in with 4 stars.
I thank St. Martin’s Press along with NetGalley for providing this Galley edition for no requirement other than my offering to provide an unbiased review.

First of all, as a disclaimer, I received a copy of this book from Net Galley. Second disclaimer is that this is my first Tom Calvin Book.

This is a popular history book about the end of the Old Wild West. The author does not cite the majority of his sources, outside in parenthetical references to some biographies.

I really struggled with this book at the very beginning, and almost did not finish it. However, the longer I read it, the more I enjoyed it. My biggest criticism of this book is that the author goes off on so many tangents, it is difficult to follow the central thread of the book. With that being said, I did learn from this book and would read other books by this author.

I remember hearing my dad's Marty Robbins records as a kid - stories of the Old West, outlaws and gunmen, beautiful Mexican maidens. And it was never hard to find old Western movies and tv shows back then. And one custom that seems extremely antiquated now: my brother and I always got cap guns around the middle of summer. But while Marty sang of Billy the Kid and El Paso, Clavin focuses more on the outlaws who used the hideouts Robbers Roost, Brown's Hole, and Hole in the Wall, which are mostly in the Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado area. They rustled horses and cattle, robbed banks and trains, and sometimes even reformed. Central to the telling of this story is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (and I'll admit to never having seen the Redford movie) and the end of the Old West.

My feelings are kind of all over the place with this book. It started out really good but by the middle I was really struggling to keep going. What made it difficult for me was that there are a LOT of stories here - mostly outlaws but some lawmen, too - and some characters only show up for a couple of paragraphs before moving on. I struggled for a while trying to remember and keep people straight (even after some of them disappear once, they tend to show up again and I couldn't remember why they were significant) until I gave up and just tried to enjoy the stories. And it's an interesting history for the most part, if you're just reading it for fun. Clavin really seems to know his stuff, but it was a bit too breezy and unfocused for me. And thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance digital copy in exchange for an honest review.