Born to the Badge — Mark Warren

Born to the Badge has been honored as a 2019 Spur Award Finalist!Shunted from his entrepreneurial ambitions to profit from the boomtowns of the frontier, 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 marshal in Dodge, Wyatt establishes a reputation as a peace officer, but he knows that police work will never deliver what he wants. 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.