The Tall Stranger: A Novel

The Tall Stranger by Louis L'Amour is well worth reading, but the movie starring Joel McCrea is better. As I have previously stated in other reviews of L'Amour's work, his early novels are his best, with one or two exceptions. In the beginning he was only concerned about telling us a good story, but in later years began to philosophize until it reached a point where it interfered with his story telling ability. I know most authors have something they want to say in their work which they want us to understand and agree with, but they can get carried away, and when there is no editorial advice provided to check this urge it can run amok. But there is none of that in this book; it is story telling at its best.

A "black" western as one can say of somber thrillers. The joyful passion by Louis L'Amour is like a little bereaved in this beautiful fierce story.

This is one of the shorter Louis L'Amours. It is only a 126 pages. But in these few pages there is a lot of action. There are around a dozen fights, guns fights and fist fights. This a fairly typical Louis L'Amour. The hero, Rock, is stronger, faster, and smarter than the bad guys. He is a good man. The basic plot is the villian tricks some settlers into being foot soldiers for a war to try and take a valley from the man who settled the valley. Rock figured out the plan, but most of the settlers won't listen to Rock. He isn't a smooth talker, like the villian. This is a fun book.

Not one of L'amours best books, but still good