Kilkenny [Mass Market Paperback]

Louis L'Amour (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1984

Kilkenny wasn’t looking for trouble when he entered the Clifton House stage station, but trouble found him when a reckless youngster named Tetlow challenged him, drew his gun, and paid for it with his life.

Looking to escape a reputation that he never wanted, Kilkenny settles in the lonely mountain country of Utah, planning to ranch a high, lush valley. But the past is on his trail. Jared Tetlow is a powerful rancher determined to run his vast herd on the limited grasslands there—whether he has to buy out the local ranchers, run them out, or kill them. He’ll cut down anyone who stands in his way, especially a man he already despises: the gunman named Kilkenny—the man who killed his son.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

He came to the valley of the whispering wind a man who rode with the caution born of riding long on strange trails in a land untamed and restless with danger. Kilkenny could find no peace in the valley, for he came with a reputation for a lighting draw. Eager gunmen arose like coyotes to test him. One trigger happy victim was a Tetlow. Old man Tetlow was a hard man driven by greed to build a cattle empire. Now he would use every ruthless killer he could hire to fulfill an even more powerful urge--to destroy Kilkenny.

From the Inside Flap

He came to the valley of the whispering wind a man who rode with the caution born of riding long on strange trails in a land untamed and restless with danger. Kilkenny could find no peace in the valley, for he came with a reputation for a lightning draw. Eager gunmen arose like coyotes to test him. One trigger happy victim was a Tetlow. Old man Tetlow was a hard man driven by greed to build a cattle empire. Now he would use every ruthless killer he could hire to fulfill an even more powerful urge--to destroy Kilkenny.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (June 1, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553247581
• ISBN-13: 978-0553247589
• Product Dimensions: 4.1 x 0.5 x 6.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #280,070 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

"I think of myself in the oral tradition--as a troubadour, a village tale-teller, the man in the shadows of a campfire. That's the way I'd like to be remembered--as a storyteller. A good storyteller."

It is doubtful that any author could be as at home in the world re-created in his novels as Louis Dearborn L'Amour. Not only could he physically fill the boots of the rugged characters he wrote about, but he literally "walked the land my characters walk." His personal experiences as well as his lifelong devotion to historical research combined to give Mr. L'Amour the unique knowledge and understanding of people, events, and the challenge of the American frontier that became the hallmarks of his popularity.

Of French-Irish descent, Mr. L'Amour could trace his own in North America back to the early 1600s and follow their steady progression westward, "always on the frontier." As a boy growing up in Jamestown, North Dakota, he absorbed all he could about his family's frontier heritage, including the story of his great-grandfather who was scalped by Sioux warriors.

Spurred by an eager curiosity and desire to broaden his horizons, Mr. L'Amour left home at the age of fifteen and enjoyed a wide variety of jobs, including seaman, lumberjack, elephant handler, skinner of dead cattle, and miner, and was an officer in the transportation corps during World War II. During his "yondering" days he also circled the world on a freighter, sailed a dhow on the Red Sea, was shipwrecked in the West Indies and stranded in the Mojave Desert. He won fifty-one of fifty-nine fights as a professional boxer and worked as a journalist and lecturer. He was a voracious reader and collector of rare books. His personal library contained 17,000 volumes.

Mr. L'Amour "wanted to write almost from the time I could talk." After developing a widespread following for his many frontiers and adventure stories written for fiction magazines, Mr. L'Amour published his first full length novel, Hondo, in the United States in 1953. Every one of his more than 120 books is in print; there are more than 300 million copies of his books in print worldwide, making him one of the bestselling authors in modern literary history. His books have been translated into twenty languages, and more than forty-five of his novels and stories have been made into feature films and television movies.

The recipient of many great honor and awards, in 1983 Mr. L'Amour became the first novelist to ever to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by the United States Congress in honor of his life's work. In 1984 he was also awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Reagan.

Louis L'Amour died on June 10, 1988. His wife, Kathy, and their two children, Beau and Angelique, carry the L'Amour publishing tradition forward with new books written by the author during his lifetime to be published by Bantam.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Kilkenny--top notch afternoon's read, November 12, 2001

By 

James Drury - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kilkenny (Mass Market Paperback)

Howdy folks--James Drury here. You might remember me from TV's the Virginian. I've done some other reviews on some of Louis L'Amour's stuff, and I don't know if these ever get used, but I wanted to say I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I've been reading Kirby Jonas's Westerns on audio tape lately and have enjoyed them so thoroughly because, frankly, they reminded me of Louis L'Amour's style. Kirby admits he grew up on Louis L'Amour, so I guess that explains it. And by the way, if you run out of Louis L'Amours and want to give someone else a shot, try one of Kirby's. You won't regret it. But back to Kilkenny, it is a fast-paced surefire way to get your afternoon, evening, or even your morning in gear, and a thoroughly entertaining way to spend an afternoon on a deer stand!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best from L'Amour, July 19, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Kilkenny (Mass Market Paperback)

After Bendigo Shafter and Sacket's storys I like Kilkenny's storys best. Recommend to all L'Amour fans

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Classic western storytelling, July 4, 2003

By 

Daniel Lowenberg "Pithy_1" (Montrose, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kilkenny (Mass Market Paperback)

It's not my favorite L'Amour book, but in many ways the protagonist of the book, Lance Kilkenny, is the archetypal L'Amour character: the solitary, humble, cultured, yet fiercely barbaric gunfighter-warrior "who understands weapons better than women and understands women quite well." For a better Lance Kilkenny novel, try "The Mountain Valley War."