Born to the Badge — Mark Warren

Born to the Badge was a 2019 Spur Award Finalist!

Shunted from his entrepreneurial ambitions to profit from the boomtowns of the frontier, twenty-six year old Wyatt Earp returns to law enforcement. In Wichita, Kansas the town leaders become disenchanted with his hardline methods, and so he moves to a place where an iron-rule is needed -- Dodge City. With him comes Mattie Blaylock, a runaway prostitute, who, like Wyatt, is searching for a chance at a better life. As assistant marshal in Dodge, Wyatt establishes a reputation as an uncompromising peace officer, but he knows that police work will never deliver what he really wants: wealth and the respect of the upper class. After joining the Black Hills gold rush and then serving a stint as railroad detective in Texas, he returns to Kansas, only to pin on the badge again and inadvertently forge his path into history.