Saturday, June 15, 2013

Book review: The Tall Stranger by Louis L’Amour

The Tall Stranger is an average Louis L’Amour, which means it is still pretty good.

Rock, the hero, is a young man who joins a wagon train. He is awkward with words, but not with guns.  He helps the wagon train through some tough times, but they don’t trust him.  Then a smooth talking man shows up and tells the wagon train about a “short cut.”  They follow him.

The glib man wants to use the people in the wagon train to take land away from a cattle baron.  Rock is suspicious from the start, but as he is not elegant with words the people in the wagon train ignore his concerns.  The story moves pretty quickly.

I am always amazed at Louis L’Amour ability to make every page a page turner.  Once started, his stories are hard to put down.

I enjoyed the story and would encourage anyone who had liked other Louis L’Amour stories, or westerns in general, to give “The Tall Stranger" a try.

1 comment:

D.M. McGowan said...

An excellent read as are all of Louis' works ... even the ones he may have dashed off in a weekend.
For something similar and including some Western Canadian History try "Parthers" (1866) and "Homesteader" (1886)at www.dmmcgowan.blogspot.com
Of course, since there are serious connections with the big neighbour to the south there is the hint of American history as well
Dave