The 1881 shootout in a vacant lot behind the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, is the stuff of American legend – forever enthralling if a bit embellished in the near century and a half of retelling.

Best-selling author Tom Clavin separates fact from fiction in his new, carefully researched book Tombstone, the final entry in his “frontier lawmen” trilogy (following 2017’s Dodge City and 2019’s Wild Bill). Clavin is a former New York Times reporter whose work also has appeared in Smithsonian, Men's Journal, and other publications. In the online presentation, he discusses the prelude to the showdown between the Earp brothers and the Clanton-McLaury gang, the 30-second eruption of violence that killed three men and wounded three others, and the bloodshed that followed when the Earps and gunslinging ally Doc Holliday went vigilante.

The event is co-presented by Rainy Day Books.