Billy (the Kid)

It’s the waning days of Prohibition in Pueblo, Colorado, and Billy, a retired dentist, is a local celebrity, owing to his rumored past as Billy the Kid. Bootleggers thrive in this town where the sheriff is on the take and you can kill a man with impunity. When a stranger named Stokes comes to Pueblo, Billy finds himself thrust into the middle of a bootleg war against his will. At stake is nothing less than the life of his best friend and a last chance at true love. Billy tries to romance Grace, the town’s beautiful widow, but she spurns his every advance, not wanting to associate with a man who lives in a fantasy world. There is one person in town, however, who believes in Billy’s storied past – Tommy, a young boy who worships the gunslingers of old. Is Billy the legendary gunman he claims to be, or just an aging dentist with a vivid imagination? In this remarkable debut novel, Peter Meech reimagines the figure of Billy the Kid in a story told with verve, humor, grit, and grace.