Queen of All Mayhem

”[A] notorious Wild West outlaw gets her due … Huckelbridge’s well-researched account excels at sorting fact from embellishment as he verifies the truth and offers possibilities when proof cannot be found.” – Washington Post

“Dane Huckelbridge’s Queen of All Mayhem deftly delivers on its promise to thrill readers with the story of the most dangerous woman in the West in the late 1800s. Belle Starr was the wildly famous female outlaw you’ve likely never heard of. But this is more than just a rollicking recounting of a villainess who rode sidesaddle with a gun strapped to her hip. It’s an exploration of why criminals turn out to be criminals.” – Kate Winkler Dawson, author of American Sherlock and The Sinners All Bow

“Dane Huckelbridge’s engaging biography of Belle Starr–a female outlaw who gained notoriety for her criminal activities in the second half of the nineteenth century–reveals surprising new insights about a spirited woman who defied gender norms.” – Amanda Bellows, author of The Explorers: A New History of America in Ten Expeditions

“An exuberant and highly entertaining biography of one of the greatest of all US folk heroes. Dane Huckelbridge’s deft deep-dive into the hard-living, gun-slinging life of Belle Starr sorts facts from fiction, and is a most welcome addition to the male-dominated history of the American West.” – Katie Hickman, author of Brave Hearted and She-Merchants

“Dane Huckelbridge’s thrilling and complex account of the remarkable female crime boss Belle Starr left me astonished–and completely upended much of what I thought I knew of the history of the Wild West.” – Dan Chaon, author of Sleepwalk

”[A] well-executed book … Dane Huckelbridge … admirably tackles the arduous task of separating fact from fiction in reconsidering a larger-than-life personality. His work serves as both a revealing biography and a fascinating true-crime mystery.” – Bookreporter.com

“A satisfying exploration of the life of the sassy bandit queen.” – Booklist

“Huckelbridge has conjured up one heck of a Wild West tale about a ‘whiskey-drinking, horse-thieving, gunslinging double widow’ that is chock-full of Western lore and nasty desperadoes… . The elusive, colorful story of a rare outlaw, told with brio.” – Kirkus Reviews

Dane Huckelbridge hails from the American Middle West and studied history at Princeton University. His writing has appeared in Tin House, The New Republic, and New Delta Review; he is at work on a new book tracing the history of beer in America.