{"product_id":"the-fall-of-abilene-9781982595227","title":"The Fall of Abilene","description":"\u003cp\u003eNoah Benton, a teenager with a great memory, a head for arithmetic, and dreams of excitement, is hired along with his older brother to help drive a herd of Texas longhorns to Abilene, Kansas. But Noah's trail boss happens to be John Wesley Hardin, a notorious killer who thinks Texas lawmen won't look for a fugitive in a crew of hardworking cowboys. After Hardin sees a profit in Noah's ability to count and memorize cards in gambling dens, Noah's dreams of excitement quickly turn into nightmares--for Hardin will kill with little provocation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEarning the nicknames \"Counting Boy,\" \"The Abilene Kid,\" and \"Abilene,\" Noah survives the bloody journey to Kansas, only to learn that Abilene rightfully deserves its nickname as a Sodom or Gomorrah. In a town where anything goes, the marshal, legendary gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok, reluctantly forms a truce with Hardin--leaving Noah caught in the middle. As summer stretches into fall, Noah finds another friend, a special deputy named Mike Williams, who tries to keep Noah from stumbling on his way to manhood.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this well-researched historical novel, eight-time Spur Award-winning author Johnny D. Boggs chronicles Abilene's last year as a cattle town, 1871, while humanizing Hardin and Hickok and painting sobering portraits of a city undergoing rapid change, and the never-changing challenges teenagers face on their path to adulthood.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBoggs, Johnny D.:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJohnny D. Boggs\u003c\/strong\u003e has worked cattle, been bucked off horses, shot rapids in a canoe, hiked across mountains and deserts, traipsed around ghost towns, and spent hours poring over microfilm in library archives--all in the name of finding a good story. He has won eight Spur Awards, making him the all-time leader in Western Writers of America's history.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Blackstone Western","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50478491730194,"sku":"9781982595227","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_37bc74b5-f071-4930-bd59-8f32901f0c45.jpg?v=1730303650","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-fall-of-abilene-9781982595227","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}