Preston Lewis Author

The Demise of Billy the Kid

“Steve Hoover” rated it 5 out of 5 stars on Amazon.com
July 4, 2014
The “Lomax” books by Preston Lewis are funny and enjoyable.

“Stony Monday” rated it 5.0 out of 5 stars on Amazon.com
“Ride On Billy,” April 6, 2014
This is one of the funniest books I have ever read.  There are three in the series.  The other two are about Wyatt Earp and Jesse James.  Supposedly the author was actually there and he tells the story from his experiences. You must read the three books.  As some old timers might say “they are a real kick in the pants!”

“Robert Rodriguez” rated it 5.0 out of 5 stars on Amazon.com
“Great book. easy reading, lots of humor. good writing,” March 25, 2014
The book is very interesting.  With some historical content.  It made me think and laugh.  Whether any of is factual or not, it is worth reading.  I wish that text books were written like that

“Kathy” rated it 4 of 5 stars on Goodreads.com
February 4, 2014
This was a fun little romp.  I can’t say I liked the narrator—or any of the characters, really—but it was a story about a violent, terrible time, and goodness, it was well-written (and well-researched).  And it had a great ending.  Just sayin’.

“JBP” rated it 5.0 out of 5 stars on Amazon.com
“Truly excellent read!” June 8, 2013
I’m one of those people that didn’t expect a lot out of this book.  Was I ever pleasantly surprised!  Very personable story telling (and I don’t for a minute buy into some fellow named Lomax having all these papers from which the writer drew from ever existed…in fact, I don’t know if the writer actually existed!) No matter! One still gets a fictitious, though always amusing, romp through Lincoln County and some of its residents such as Billy the Kid, of course. This book had me laughing out loud. I kid you not. To me it was actually up on the same level of Larry McMurtry’s comical and tragic writings about the west.  Yes, I would mention Lonesome Dove and many other of McMurtry’s books. If you like McMurtry, you’ll like this. If you haven’t read McMurtry, then I’d say read him too and particularly his westerns! This was a fun read!

“Tracy” rated it 5 of 5 stars on Goodreads.com
February 26, 2013
Could not put it down

“Katie” rated it 5 of 5 stars on Goodreads.com
August 3, 2008
I liked this book almost as much as I did The Redemption of Jesse James.  Again written from the viewpoint of H.H. Lomax this book fills all the requirements of a western i.e., cattle rustling, damsels in distress, and sixguns; however it seems to be much more.  The characters are very vibrant and inline with the time period.  This book happens when Lomax is a bit older and has lost some of his wide-eyed innocence, but he still has some of his back-woods ways and his wry humor.  Overall it’s a great story to read, anytime.

“Linda Williams” rated it 4.0 out of 5 stars on Amazon.com
“History Comes Alive,” December 18, 2001
I haven’t finished this book yet, but am about 2/3 done.  I didn’t want to read it, but found nothing else around.  I can hardly put it down!  It tells the story of the Lincoln County War so convincingly from the viewpoint of H.H. Lomax, that I was driven to the internet to learn more about the actual events.  The writing is very descriptive and entertaining.  I wish I’d read this before we went through Lincoln Co., I’d have paid closer attention.

“A Customer” rated it 5.0 out of 5 stars Amazon.com
“Preston Lewis makes the old west come alive,” January 10, 1999
After reading one of Mr. Lewis’s books I found it to be wonderful.  If the West was anywhere near what he writes, life was an adventure. I have his whole collection.

Frederick Nolan, Author, The West of Billy the Kid
Letter to Author, November 17, 1994
It’s a tour-de-force, a marvelous amalgam of just enough fact and exactly the right amount of fiction. 

Roundup Magazine
November-December, 1994
A comic novel loosely based on the memoirs of H.H. Lomax, The Demise of Billy the Kid is an absolute delight.  Lewis finally gives free rein to his gift for humorous narrative to re-create Lomax’s adventures during the Lincoln County War … H.H. Lomax is one of those wonderful characters, who, if he didn’t exist, a writer would have to invent.  Fortunately, Preston Lewis did.  Or did he?  Vivid characters, historically accurate detail, humor, and superb writing make this novel the most entertaining read of this or the past several years.

Books of the Southwest
December 1994
Meet H.H.Lomax, who will meander on his mule Flash through some of the West’s most fabled events, starting in this book with the Lincoln County War … Written with verve, intelligence, humor and sound research.

Wall Street Journal
“Gang of Offbeat Western Novels Takes Genre by Storm,” July 18, 1994
A new series by Preston Lewis features a protagonist, H.H. Lomax, who isn’t much of a gunfighter, horseman or gambler.  Instead, he is a likable loser who runs into old western celebrities like Billy the Kid and the Jesse James gang, and barely escapes.

Rocky Mountain News
“Lewis & Lomax,” November 27, 1994
Now, Preston Lewis … is doing with the ‘papers’ of H.H. Lomax what such illustrious predecessors as A. Conan Doyle and George MacDonald Fraser did with those of Holmes and Flashman—bring these hidden memoirs to the public, cunningly disguised as novels.  He has done it splendidly … The Demise of Billy the Kid is a wonderfully told tale of the rise, fall and death of the Kid as seen through the tough, intelligent, good-humored frontiersman, Henry Harrison Lomax of Arkansas.  It takes a special talent to write first-person novels based on the premise of ‘lost papers,’ but Preston Lewis is an especially fresh and innovative writer and he knows how to do it.

Texas Books in Review
“Views of the American West,” Winter 1994
Lomax is a rowdy, bawdy, reluctant knight-errant whose close association with William ‘Billy the Kid’ Bonney nearly causes his death …Lovers of folkspeech will revel in Lewis’s use of grandiose similes … Lewis, an experienced writer of category or formula fiction as well as mainstream works, knows well the art of spinning out a story … (and) … becomes a humorist whose The Demise of Billy the Kid puts him in the company of Mark Twain and humorists of the Old Southwest.