The legend of Jesse James, the Old West outlaw, is inseparable from the name of the man who killed him: Robert Ford, the would-be gunslinger whose story has been enshrined in such works as Samuel Fuller’s film I Shot Jesse James (1949) and Ron Hansen’s novel The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (adapted as a film of the same name in 2007). In most tellings of Jesse James’s life and times, Bob Ford is merely part of Jesse’s epilogue—the “dirty little coward” who emerged briefly from obscurity to play his small part in the tale—shooting James in the head while his back was turned before fading back into insignificance. But in a culture that is as fascinated by the stories of famous villains as their heroic counterparts, Ford has become something of an object of sympathy—or, at least, pitying fascination.

BIG MAN JUDAS, a historical novel by James and Jonathan Maas, picks up where the James legend ends, following Bob’s exploits in the wake of his infamous act. The novel opens in Missouri in the waning years of the 19th century. “Wood” Hite and Dick Liddil, members of the James-Younger Gang and “wild, untamed young men” looking to make their mark on the world, are former friends engaged in a bitter feud over money and a woman (Dick is involved with Hite’s stepmother). Their feud escalates into violence, culminating in Hite’s death at the hands of Dick’s friend, a furtive, obsequious young man named Robert Ford. In the first of two cowardly acts that would define his life, Bob fatally shoots Hite from a hiding spot. The narrative then shifts to Jesse James himself, a cool and calculating man seen reviewing his current—and future—schemes while reflecting on his encroaching obsolescence as a Wild West relic left behind by a modern world with no place for an outlaw. The novel quickly reaches the moment that ends Jesse’s story and begins Bob’s. With Dick having surrendered to authorities, Bob meets secretly with the governor, who offers him a deal: in exchange for a pardon and “an absolute ton of cash,” Bob must infiltrate the James gang and get close to Jesse so that they can take him down. (Bob mishears this last part as “so that you can take him down.”) Terrified of Jesse, who has become increasingly paranoid and suspects his men of disloyalty, Bob agrees. Once the infamous deed is done, Bob is left to make his way through a world in which he is derided by those who revere Jesse as a folk hero.

Jonathan Maas, who is best known as the author of such fantasy and science fiction novels as Spanners: The Fountain of Youth and the City of God series, adapted BIG MAN JUDAS from a manuscript written by his father, James, a colorful figure whose life—James was an avid hunter, esteemed psychiatrist, and tenured Yale professor who left Yale for a more compatible “intellectual climate” at the University of Texas Health Science Center—would make a fascinating tale in itself. Jonathan describes his father’s novel as “informed by his experiences on ranches, hunting, reading Larry McMurtry, Thomas McGuane, Ernest Hemingway,” and BIG MAN JUDAS reflects much of the plainspoken poetry of those authors—bringing readers into Bob Ford’s innermost thoughts with lyrical precision: “A feeling of fear crept into his stomach and spread throughout his body. This wasn’t the fear of his youth, the fear of the bully in the schoolyard―the kind of fear inevitably followed by shame. This was real fear, a fear you were supposed to have.” The lean, spare writing focuses almost entirely on dialogue and character, and while it lacks the vivid historical details of Ron Hansen’s novel, which covers much of the same ground, BIG MAN JUDAS conveys a terse, laconic voice that, in some ways, feels more appropriate to the stories of these blunt, introspective men. Jonathan notes that the novel is one of two stories his father left behind, and this engaging and colorful novel will leave readers hungry for another tall tale.

Dense with action and propelled along by strong pacing and a compelling sense of urgency, BIG MAN JUDAS by James and Jonathan Maas is an engaging, colorful novel that will leave readers hungry for another tall tale.

~Edward Sung for IndieReader