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Follow the Angels, Follow the Doves: The Bass Reeves Trilogy, Book 1
Follow the Angels, Follow the Doves is an origin story in the true American tradition. Before Bass Reeves could stake his claim as the most successful nineteenth-century American lawman, arresting more outlaws than any other deputy during his thirty-two-year career as a deputy US marshal in some of the most dangerous regions of the Wild West, he was a slave.
After a childhood picking cotton, Reeves became an expert marksman under his master's tutelage, winning shooting contests throughout the region. His skill had serious implications, however, as the Civil War broke out. Reeves was given to his master's mercurial, sadistic, Moby-Dick-quoting son in the hopes that Reeves would keep him safe in battle. The ensuing humiliation, love, heroics, war, mind games, and fear solidified Reeves's determination to gain his freedom and drew him one step further on his fated path to an illustrious career.
Follow the Angels, Follow the Doves is an important historical work that places Reeves in the pantheon of American heroes and a thrilling historical novel that narrates a great man's exploits amid the near-mythic world of the nineteenth-century frontier.
After a childhood picking cotton, Reeves became an expert marksman under his master's tutelage, winning shooting contests throughout the region. His skill had serious implications, however, as the Civil War broke out. Reeves was given to his master's mercurial, sadistic, Moby-Dick-quoting son in the hopes that Reeves would keep him safe in battle. The ensuing humiliation, love, heroics, war, mind games, and fear solidified Reeves's determination to gain his freedom and drew him one step further on his fated path to an illustrious career.
Follow the Angels, Follow the Doves is an important historical work that places Reeves in the pantheon of American heroes and a thrilling historical novel that narrates a great man's exploits amid the near-mythic world of the nineteenth-century frontier.
Audible Audio
Published September 26, 2023
About the author
Sidney Thompson
21 books59 followersThe first two novels in THE BASS REEVES TRILOGY--FOLLOW THE ANGELS, FOLLOW THE DOVES (2020) & HELL ON THE BORDER (2021)--inspired the 2023 Paramount+ miniseries LAWMEN: BASS REEVES (produced by Taylor Sheridan & starring Golden-Globe nominee David Oyelowo, Dennis Quaid, and Donald Sutherland). I was a Creative Consultant with the show. Book Three, THE FORSAKEN AND THE DEAD, was published in 2023. This bestselling trilogy has received numerous honors for preserving whitewashed cultural history.
Though enslaved for the first 22 years of his life, Bass Reeves rose to epic heights as the most successful and feared lawman in the Old West. The trilogy narrates his life story.
My other books include a middle-grade novel, KUDZU'S ENORMOUS NEW LIFE, which features a cast of animal characters and an autistic boy who live on a small farm in the Mississippi Delta. Margaret McMullan, author of Where the Angels Lived and How I Found the Strong, said, "Think E.B. White and Beatrice Potter. Kudzu’s Enormous New Life will be a classic." The book was nominated for the 2022 Mississippi Institute of Arts & Letters Book Award for Youth Literature, was a finalist for the 2021 American Book Fest Award for Children's Fiction, and was a 2023 Purple Dragonfly Book Award Winner for Animals/Pets, Middle Grade Fiction, & Special Needs/Disability Awareness.
In addition: YOU/WEE: POEMS FROM A FATHER (2018) and SIDESHOW: STORIES, winner of Foreword INDIES Silver Award for Short Story Collection of the Year (2006).
I earned an MFA in creative writing at the University of Arkansas and a PhD in American literature/African-American narratives at the University of North Texas, and now teach creative writing and African-American literature at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.
Though enslaved for the first 22 years of his life, Bass Reeves rose to epic heights as the most successful and feared lawman in the Old West. The trilogy narrates his life story.
My other books include a middle-grade novel, KUDZU'S ENORMOUS NEW LIFE, which features a cast of animal characters and an autistic boy who live on a small farm in the Mississippi Delta. Margaret McMullan, author of Where the Angels Lived and How I Found the Strong, said, "Think E.B. White and Beatrice Potter. Kudzu’s Enormous New Life will be a classic." The book was nominated for the 2022 Mississippi Institute of Arts & Letters Book Award for Youth Literature, was a finalist for the 2021 American Book Fest Award for Children's Fiction, and was a 2023 Purple Dragonfly Book Award Winner for Animals/Pets, Middle Grade Fiction, & Special Needs/Disability Awareness.
In addition: YOU/WEE: POEMS FROM A FATHER (2018) and SIDESHOW: STORIES, winner of Foreword INDIES Silver Award for Short Story Collection of the Year (2006).
I earned an MFA in creative writing at the University of Arkansas and a PhD in American literature/African-American narratives at the University of North Texas, and now teach creative writing and African-American literature at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.
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