The Rider of Lost Creek

Kilkenny is this solitary hero against everyone, knight errant, idealistic, boxer, remarkable pistol shooter, hard disease that has the meaning of friendship and justice to flower skin. Some ranchers to attack his friend. At gallop, to his aid in the heat of battle. A beautiful story.

Dynamically narrated by Jim Gough, The Rider Of Lost Creek is an unabridged audiobook presentation of celebrated author Louis L'Amour's western novel about a gunman who owes his life to man whose claim on a watering hole is disputed by two wealthy, feuding cattle ranchers. The drama comes alive through Austin native Jim Gough's engrossing presentation, and L'Amour's painstaking attention to detail and realism shine through as always, creating a vivid glimpse of struggle and survival on the harsh frontier. The tension stays high from the beginning to the very end. 4 CDs, 4 1/2 hours, tracks every 3 minutes for easy bookmarking.

Louis L'Amour's best known series are about the Sackett family. Most of the rest of his stories focus on a few characters that are rarely mentioned again in his books. "The Rider of Lost Creek" is an exception; this is the first of three books about Lance Kilkenny, one of the fastest gunfighters in the west. Kilkenny tries to stay out of sight and out of trouble, but when a friend of his gets into trouble, Kilkenny comes to straighten things out. I once heard that Louis L'Amour kept two typewriters in his office. When he hit writer's block on one story, he would switch to the second typewriter. I wonder if this happened on this story because one of the secondary characters, Steve Lord, at the start of the story seems like a good guy, but later he turns out to be a bad guy. I am often amazed at just how well Louis L'Amour's wrote. For example in chapter 7, to give us some background of Rusty Gates, one of the good guys, there is a paragraph that starts: "His mother had died when he was sixteen, working to make ends meet. A year later, Rusty had lost a sister to the cholera, and one brother was killed by a bad horse. Another brother, at fourteen went to work on a riverboat, and his sister, at sixteen, married a doctor in Joplin. At sixteen, Rusty road away west to find what fortune might offer. He wanted land of his own, a few head of horses and cattle." In just a few sentences Louis L'Amour reminds us just how hard life was a150 years ago, he shows us how alone Rusty is, and he lets us know that Rusty is the kind of guy who is trying to build civilization. It is well done. The basic plot of the "The Rider of Lost Creek" is Kilkenny's friend, Mort Davis, is in trouble, two bigger cattle ranches look to be getting ready to wipe him out. Kilkenny shows up on the scene and realizes that there is more going on that meets the eye. This is more of your typical western movie; Kilkenny leaves the girl and rides off into the sunset. This is a fun story, one of Louis L'Amour's best. If you enjoy a good western, this is a good one to read.

The first of the three novels (that I know of) about Lance Kilkenny, an honest man with an unwanted reputation as a gunfighter. In this one he rides to help a friend who is cought in the middle of a range war, but as Kilkenny finds out, there is a lot more going on than just a range war. This is a good and entertaining novel which introduces the characters that apear again in "The Mountain Vally War" and "Kilkenny" This one I've read three times, already, and am sure to read it again and again in the years to come. It's a well told tale in Louis L'Amour's unequaled style and filled with well crafted characters. I reckomend it, also the other two Kilkenny novels, they to are more than worth every page.