Thunder over the Prairie

Howard Kazanjian is an award-winning producer and entertainment executive who has been producing feature films and television programs for more than twenty-five years. While vice president of production for Lucasfilm Ltd., he produced two of the highest grossing films of all time: Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. He also managed production of another top-ten box-office hit, The Empire Strikes Back. Some of his other notable credits include The Rookies, Demolition Man, and the two-hour pilot and first season of J.A.G.In addition to his production experience, Kazanjian has worked with some of the finest directors in the history of cinema. He has worked closely with such legends as Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Sam Peckinpah, Robert Wise, Joshua Logan, Clint Eastwood, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Francis Ford Coppola. He is a longtime voting member in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Producers Guild of America, and the Directors Guild of America. The California native is also a trustee of Azusa Pacific University. Chris Enss is an award-winning screen writer who has written for television, short subject films, live performances, and for the movies, and is the co-author (with JoAnn Chartier) of Love Untamed: True Romances Stories of the Old West, Gilded Girls: Women Entertainers of the Old West, and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon: Women Patriots and Soldiers of the Old West and The Cowboy and the Senorita and Happy Trails (with Howard Kazanjian). Her most recent books include Buffalo Gals: Women of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and How the West was Worn. Enss has done everything from stand-up comedy to working as a stunt person at the Old Tucson Movie Studio. She learned the basics of writing for film and television at the University of Arizona, and she is currently working with Return of the Jedi producer Howard Kazanjian on the movie version of The Cowboy and the Senorita, their biography of western stars Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.

I just finished “Thunder Over the Prairie.” It was fantastic! The story was totally captivating. I love the way we started by meeting Dora, and were given just enough information about her to grow to like her and then she’s taken away from us. I guess that’s kind of how her life was. The reader feels just like the people of Dodge City must have felt, to lose her so early and tragically. Then we meet the posse. The names are all familiar but their stories not as well known. To hear them swap stories between themselves, then to read their histories, gets us to understand how it is that they are all here at this particular time and together for this event. You feel that they’re destined to succeed in capturing this animal. How could they fail? I loved the book and have recommended it to others already. Dale Warshaw, Literary CriticKMSB TV Tucson, AZ. Thunder Over the Prairie, written with cinematic clarity and a galloping pace, is a wonderful primer for the considerable literature on Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp et. al. This accessible narrative of a fascinating episode in the careers of these well-known western icons is filled with characters that are archetypal yet utterly fresh at the same time. This charming book is the perfect read for anyone lingering over a drink (or two) in a dusty western saloon on a lazy afternoon. Jay O’Connell, author of Train Robber’s Daughter: The Melodramatic Life of Eva Evans, 1876-1970 “Lawmen, cowboys, songbirds and soiled doves…it doesn’t get much better. A shooting, a chase and a trial whose verdict changes all of their lives. Thunder Over the Prairie is a great story from the history of our American West, warts and all.” Dakota & Sunny LivesayChronicles of the Old West

• Foreword; Acknowledgments; Introduction; Murder of a Nightingale; Cold-Blooded Assassin; A Posse on the Move; Thunder over the Prairie; Caught in a Storm; Beyond the River; Waiting for a Killer; Captured; The Gunman's Trial; End of the Trail; Suggested Further Reading; Index; About the Authors