Book Reviews

L'Amour is a wonderful storyteller. Westerns aren't what I'd normally choose to read, but I picked this up out of curiosity and I was happily surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

This is the story of Pronto Pike's turning point in life. Pike's a cowhand drifting from job to job, enjoying a few fights between jobs. He and a new friend take a job in Eastern Montana and the story deals with rustlers, vigilantes, ranchers and homesteaders. Pike turns out to be a hero the reader totally likes - not perfect, but definitely not an anti-hero, either. He's intelligent and thoughtful, but also just a normal guy. There's nothing special about him except that maybe he's a bit more intelligent and thoughtful than average.

The best thing about L'Amour's writing is that just when you think you know where the story's going, he throws in a curve. He makes it totally natural (it's not just thrown in), and in many cases, it seemed, to me, to be more realistic than the average story would be.

This was my first Louis L'Amour book, but it won't be my last.