"LOGAN" BOOK REVIEWS
READ full review by Janet Geary, Publisher, Nevada Magazine
READ full review by Jon Guttman, Wild West Magazine
"This is my style of Old West history: gritty, truthful and edged with poignant sadness."– Bob Boze Bell, Executive Editor True West magazine
"At its heart, the book tells the story of a western lawman who was as ambitious as he was effective and how his association with the owner of a brothel, ultimately, affected the trial of the man accused of Logan's murder. However, the book manages to transcend mere biography in its consideration of the larger historical context of this era throughout. The book can be divided into three parts, Logan's early years, his career as a lawman, the accounts of his death and subsequent trial. All the material is well-researched and compelling, but the details of the shooting and trial provide insight as to how the perception of a public figure shapes the opinion of a jury. Accordingly, the narrative of Tom Logan becomes a fascinating mirror of this time, place, and the culture of the community he served." – US Review of Books
"LOGAN is a helluva book. Some people who are good researchers can’t write and others who are good writers aren’t good researchers. Jackie Boor is the rare storyteller who can do both with excellence." – Emil Franzi, award-winning host of “Voices of the West,” AM 1030, Tucson, AZ
"This is the kind of history that I love. Two or three decades ago writers talked of events, but went out of their way not to include names of anyone but their major players. I love the fact that we have entered an era where the genealogical spirit has come to the fore. Well written works like yours name everyone and even give you background on them. This not only gives future writers something to build on as further associations and documents come to light, but it makes the stories come to life. It enables all of us to come to a better understanding of the relevance of what is happening in the settings of the period….This old lawman loves it." – Bob Ellison, “Nevada Lawman Research Project”
"This is an amazing, amazing tale. It reads like a fictional story—a real page-turner." – Cody Stark, Weekend Anchor, Good Day Sacramento, CW 31, Sacramento, CA
"Jackie Boor has made history come alive with this riveting tale of honor, loss and family." – Madeline Neumann, National President, Concerns of Police Survivors, Line of Duty Widow
"It is the story of the last vestiges of what we now call the Wild West giving way, grudgingly, to a more civilized and orderly society. From the background of Tom Logan's killer, through inquest testimony and finally to the 1906 murder trial itself, the reader is presented with the story of just how family, friends and events were impacted by the sheriff's death." – Rod Timanus, Artist, Actor & Historical Writer
"LOGAN is a wonderful read for anyone enamored with Western History, or for anyone who loves a good story that is rife with the flavor of how it really was in the boom towns and mining camps of the gunslingers. It is a story of corruption, honor and tragedy, but it is a story told with brutal truth, and it is backed up through countless hours of Boor's research .If you love the flavor of the Old West, read this book....." – John Luthens, Novelist, "Taconite Creek"
"Loyalty to family, law and order, liquor and ladies of the night make this book a great read and a fascinating work of Nevada History!" – Michael E. Fischer D.D.S., Former Director, Nevada Department of Cultural Affairs and Independent Scholar in Nevada History
"LOGAN is Nevada history at its best and a compelling biography of Nye County Sheriff Thomas W. Logan….but Logan’s great-granddaughter has given the reader something more. Her rigorous research and engaging writing underscore her personal odyssey to find the truth for generations of her family confused and haunted by Logan’s controversial and untimely demise." – Guy Rocha, historian and former Nevada state archivist
"Informed and informative, (LOGAN) is one of those historical biographies that seize upon the reader’s total attention and hold its firmly from beginning to end. Very highly recommended for personal reading lists, as well as community and academic library American History collections." – James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief, Midwest Book Review
"LOGAN reminds us of the dangers of being a lawman in the West, and of life caught in a mining rush. It is also a story of transition from the nineteenth century to the twentieth, from vigilante justice to law and order, and from one Nevada to the other." – Michael Green, Professor of History, College of Southern Nevada
"Jackie Boor very skillfully takes us behind the badge and into an extremely demanding time when the West was experiencing enormous growth and law enforcement had to rapidly evolve in order to respond to all the new challenges. "– Anthony L. DeMeo, former Sheriff of Nye County, Nevada
"This history is written with grit, trail dust and blood sharpened with enough human emotion that it is hard to remember it is not a novel." – Barney Basin, The Ole book Buzzard, Pahrump Mirror
"The scent of sagebrush after a spring rain, the sound of wagons rolling down dusty Nevada roads, and the lively music and rough and tumble sounds of a mining camp all entered my mind as I lost myself in this book." – Doug Gist, President, Silver State National Peace Officers Museum, Virginia City, Nevada
"As the story unfolded, I found myself becoming emotionally involved in what is really Old West Shakespeare: cunning, treachery and murder, with a hint of what just might have been planned vengeance and retaliation." – Joni Eastley, Assistant County Manager, Nye County, Nevada
"Whether by journalistic misfire, academic neglect, or unabashed revisionism, much of Nevada's colorful history has often been obscured. This is the case with the remarkable story of the lawman Tom Logan." – John L. Smith, Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist, author of "Sharks in the Desert"
– The following review by Mark P. Hall-Patton, Administrator, Clark County Museum System, Nevada and HISTORY Channel Expert; Los Angeles Corral of Westerners, The Branding Iron, Winter, 2014
"Written by his Great-Granddaughter, Logan tells the story of Tom Logan, Nevada resident and eventually Sheriff of Nye County. Tom Logan was born in Franktown, Nevada , a ghost town today. He grew up in the various boom towns of the state, from Austin to Pioche. The family moved to St. Joseph by the time Tom was 10, and settled there for a few years.
"Tom eventually married Hannah Hamblin, niece of the Mormon missionary and explorer Jacob Hamblin. This account of his life does a good job of describing the family and its various branches, and their peregrinations. The Great Granddaughter’s interest in the story is clearly a very personal one, a way to make sense of the tales which have come down to her within her family.
"As such, this is not just the story of a turn-of-the-century sheriff in boomtown Nevada, but how decisions made in his life affected both his life and that of later generations. It is a very personal story for the writer, and parts of the tale are told in a way that a disinterested historian would never say. That being said, it is a rip-roaring tale of the southern Nevada mining boom years of the early twentieth century.
"Like many local lawmen, Tom Logan invested in the community he ended up in, that of Tonopah. He had been the Nye County sheriff before the Tonopah strike, working out of Belmont. The sheriff’s position being an elected one, he was voted out at times, but always later returned to office. He was well known as an effective sheriff, and moved to Tonopah with the boom.
"His wife and family lived on a leased ranch in Smoky Valley, quite some distance from Tonopah. Given his job, he spent much of his time in Tonopah, becoming a partner in the Eagle Saloon, and in some of the local mines. At this time, mines were being located throughout the region, with new districts being created as new strikes were made. Boor, in her book, does a good job of following Logan’s various travels trying to both police a fairly lawless land that covered hundreds of square miles, as well as trying to build a business base for success.
"Logan’s murder outside a brothel where he had been staying with the madam reads like an old west novel. The fact that he also saved the life of his killer, by asking for him to be spared by the one person who could (and probably would) have killed him speaks to his sense of right and wrong. He had five bullets in him at the time, and later died from the shooting. It is a fascinating story.
"The subsequent chapters tell the story of the trial (his killer was acquitted), the review of how he had functioned in his office and subsequent questions only the dead man could have answered. It reads like the old west, but also like many untimely deaths, where not everything was in order and there were many things that could be seen in a very negative way depending on the inclination of the viewer. The book also follows the later life of the killer, tracking down where he went and what eventually happened to him. Names of other involved parties, both in the killing and later trial, read like a who’s who of movers and shakers in Nevada history. Tasker Oddie, George Wingfield, Patrick McCarran, Key, Vail and William Pittman all have their parts to play, and while there is some speculation on Boor’s part at times as to their respective roles, it is a fascinating story.
"Because this book is such a personal story for the author, there are details and intersections in the story you will seldom get in the work of a disinterested historian. It is a story that shows that no matter when it happens, violent death often leaves questions which rebound down through families. It is a little oddly put together, with a poem at the beginning of each chapter, mainly from the period being covered. They are interesting, but disconcerting when you want to move to the next part of the story. However, I would personally recommend this book to anyone interested in the early twentieth century mining boom in southern Nevada, in law enforcement history, or in Nevada and western history generally. It is a fine read, and certainly was a labor of love for the author. I am happy to keep this one on my shelf." #