Over on the Dry Side (Talon and Chantry)

The springs of justice, one against all, in a community who wants to grow socially, a good theme remarkably well operated by Louis L'Amour. Such a book is better than the best movie westerns.

If you, like me, love most of the books by Louis L'Amour, and you've never read Over On The Dry Side, do check it out. This is the story of a young fellow who grows up poor and lonely, and loses his mother at a young age. He and his hard-luck dad find a carefully built deserted cabin and they move in and start ranching. Trouble soon finds them, but so too does a mysterious stranger. Up high in the surrounding dry hills there is another finely built cabin, built by the same long gone and mysterious man, a man who supposedly had stashed a big cache of gold before he was killed. In the nearby hills there is a band of killers who want that gold. Over on the Dry Side is a mystery as much as it is a western. Clues are found and the reader along with the characters in the book ...all are trying to figure out where the stash is, and what it is, as it may be gold, but may not be either. The story is told almost always through the eyes of the young boy, who is about 16. Up in the hills in the other hidden and deserted cabin he finds a little pot of flowers and realizes that a female, a girl probably, left those flowers. He starts to daydream about this girl, pictures her as young and beautiful, as well she does turn out to be. She however, isn't exactly as he has envisioned her to be...she's beautiful but not like he has "seen" her in his mind. As the book evolves, the boy becomes very jealous of the stranger, the man who turns out to be the brother of the original man who had built the cabins. The story is compelling at all points, the pages turn and you have to keep on reading. Told through the eyes of the young boy, the story has a fresh feel to it, and the reader gets to really care about him and what will happen. In all respects, one of L'Amour's finest books; a real pleasure to read. Do yourself a favor and check out On The Dry Side. I predict, you'll love it.

I have noticed that Louis L'Amour books with certain characters often seem to stand out. It's as though he gave special attention to special characters. This book is no exception. One of the main characters is called Owen Chantry. He is somewhat mysterious, but the Chantry name is quite popular in L'Amour novels. This book was also unique as L'Amour gave us another character, Doby, a sixteen year old boy. Doby speaks in first person. We read his every thought and plan. We see how lonely he is living far from civilization. He dreamed about about a "golden haired girl." We even hear his poor english skills throughout the book. L'Amour is a master at capturing "country talk." Of course the book has the regular bad guys, killing and even treasure. But, this time it is quite different. Get this book and read it. It is short and easy to read, but interesting all the way through.

Top notch writing. The setting for this book has a quality that draws me back to it over and over again much like Mountain Valley War or Guns of the Timberlands. Its about my all time favorite L'Amour book.