You may remember that I absolutely loved L'Amour's book Borden Chantry because it was a western murder mystery. My friend Eva recommended I try out these short stories because I liked that so much, and I'm really glad she did! In fact, I just ordered a copy of L'Amour's novel Bowdrie's Law because I need more.
Of the eight stories here, my favorites were "Too Tough to Brand," "The Killer from the Pecos," and "Bowdrie Follows a Cold Trail," but not one of these stories was a dud, and I will happily reread this collection in the future.
Particularly Good Bits:
The ways of dishonest men were never as clever as they assumed, and the solving of a crime was usually just a painstaking job of establishing motives and putting together odds and ends of information ("A Job for a Ranger," p. 28)
It was early afternoon, but the town was already up and sinning when Chick Bowdrie left his roan at the Almagre livery stable ("The Killer from the Pecos," p. 127).
If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for western violence and a smattering of traditional cuss words.
This has been my 43rd book read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2022.
YAY!
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy that you enjoyed reading about Bowdrie. He's one of the best L'Amour heroes, in my opinion.
:-D I mean, how would I not love him? He's a loner dedicated to justice and righting wrongs. Nom nom nom.
DeleteI've never read any of his books but my 17 yr old daughter loves his writing. She keeps telling me I should read some & has suggested 'The Walking Drum' which I take is a bit different to his other books?
ReplyDeleteCarol, I have only read maybe 9 or 10 -- I'm catching up, you might say! I didn't care for him when I was younger, but I'm really loving his style now. I haven't read The Walking Drum, but I know he wrote in several genres besides western, including historical fiction set in other eras, mysteries, and even some sci-fi.
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