Milo Talon [Paperback]

Louis L'Amour (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1981

Milo Talon knew the territory and the good men from the bad. He had ridden the Outlaw Trail and could find out things others couldn’t. That was why a rich man named Jefferson Henry hired Milo to hunt down a missing girl. But from the moment Milo began his search, he knew something wasn’t right. Three people had already died, an innocent woman was on the run, and a once sleepy town was getting crowded with hired guns. Suddenly, Milo Talon realized that there were still things he had to learn—about the woman he was trying to find, the man who had hired him, and the murderer who wanted him dead. But most of all, Milo had a few things to learn about himself. And he would have to work fast, because one mistake could cost him his life.…

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Milo Talon knew the land, and the good men from the bad. He had ridden the Outlaw Trail and could find out things others couldn't, and that's why a rich man named Jefferson Henry hired Milo to hunt down a missing girl. But from the moment Milo began his search he knew something wasn't right. Three people had already died, an innocent woman was on the run, and a once sleepy town was getting crowded with killers and hired guns. Suddenly Milo Talon realized that there were still things he had to learn--to beat out a breed who kept secrets, told lies, and forced an honest man to learn the truth behind the barrel of a gun.

From the Inside Flap

Milo Talon knew the land, and the good men from the bad. He had ridden the Outlaw Trail and could find out things others couldn't, and that's why a rich man named Jefferson Henry hired Milo to hunt down a missing girl. But from the moment Milo began his search he knew something wasn't right. Three people had already died, an innocent woman was on the run, and a once sleepy town was getting crowded with killers and hired guns. Suddenly Milo Talon realized that there were still things he had to learn--to beat out a breed who kept secrets, told lies, and forced an honest man to learn the truth behind the barrel of a gun.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (July 1, 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553247638
• ISBN-13: 978-0553247633
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.8 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #745,372 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

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great western mystery, April 3, 2000

By 

"ofurstinn" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Milo Talon (Paperback)

Milo Talon, son of Em Sackett, is hired to find a missing girl and return her to her grandfather, but all is not as it seems and Milo finds himself in a complicated mystery. An exelent novel with a good mystery plot, very well written and suspencefull. A must for all western fans, I found it impossible to put this book down once I'd started.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Difficult job for Milo Talon, October 20, 2003

By 

Adam Harrison (Conway, AR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Milo Talon (Hardcover)

"Jefferson Henry, I am beginning to wonder about you." Milo cannot decide what to believe or not to believe. He never knows who might turn their back on him at any time. The author Louis L'amour of Milo Talon, tries to convey that people cannot trust each other. People always need to keep an eye on even your closest friends. This reveals a life long lesson in which the author may have gone through earlier in his life. It reveals a typical hardship that people these days go through to find trustworthy people.
This novel talks about Milo Talon, the main character, being hired by a well respectable man named Jefferson Henry to find a missing girl. He finds it hard to search for the girl due to other outlaws trying to kill him. He must go out in the desert and into the mountains to search for her while covering his back and protecting himself. He trades horses daily, hides in mountains, runs across open territory, and nearly gets killed before the end of the novel.
The setting for the book makes it very appropriate, the mystery and adventure mood of the book makes it more exciting. The mountains, deserts, and caves make it the most important aspect of the book. The terrain makes it appropriate because it puts a lot of stress on him, his horses, and the outlaws who are chasing him. The setting also changes from hour to hour. He says to Pablo, "I'll help you move camp, I just want your boss to find you alive in a little bit."
The appropriate characterization reveals the book to be very effective in that the men reveal to be rough people in the Midwest, just looking to cause a fight. The men and women talk with country accents just as they should because they live in the western part of the United States and sometimes can be classified as "country people." People in the country seem to be thought of as bad people or up to no good. The characters in the book really create a good tone because they seem very rough an grungy, cuss, ride horses, shoot at each other, and drink beer. They make the characterization appropriate for the book in this Mid-western town.
L'amour portrays this book as having a boring plot, because of Milo's lack of an outgoing attitude. He sits back and lets the other men make a move first. In the long run, it helps Milo, but it ruins the plot at the beginning. He tries to make a game out of his search instead of taking it as serious as he was hired to do. If he took charge in his search for the girl, the plot would change, and it might make the book more interesting. Although, good things become of the plot, Milo brightens the book as he looks for the missing girl. A lot of people help him as well, for example, he has Pablo who shot a man, and German Schafer helps him hide from the men chasing him. Milo backs this up by saying "you had expected to ride up here and frighten us, running us out of the country perhaps."
The language that L'amour uses turns out to be very effective. L'amour uses a informal writing style when they cuss every now and then, he says "Go to Hell" to John Topps one day when John said he was going to kill him. Milo's language is straightforward and easy to understand. He says to Molly, "The wet was a hard place for a woman alone and without funds"
Milo succeeds in making this an interesting book when he says "that old man thought he was a better shot than he is, he missed my head by a foot." After almost being killed he can still make a joke about something that nearly took his life. The personality of Milo makes the book worth reading. He also reveals that everyone needs help sometime in their life. He says "people can not always do everything on their own." This life long lesson may create a great feeling for the reader. Milo and other great characters such as, Molly, make this book good for anyone.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Milo Talon, October 9, 2003

By 

Luke Vammen (Conway, Arkansas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Milo Talon (Paperback)

"Maybe when they kill so many they can't believe it's happening to them." This quote shows a very typical trait of the characters. Louis Lamour really makes the reader wonder if their friends might actually murder people. In his book, he sets everything in a small town to make it seem as if everybody knows everybody. Readers will soon realize that everybody starts looking over their shoulders at all times, especially Milo Talon, because people like John Topp are strolling around town looking at him. The story will keep you nervous throughout the whole book.
The book starts out with Jefferson Henry asking Milo Talon to find his granddaughter. Milo goes through a lot of twists and turns trying to find her. He ends up killing a few people and a mountain lion. He stares death in the face just about the whole story. He makes some friends, loses some, and gains a lot of respect around town. However, in the end, none of that really matters and Milo learns not to get comfortable with one town.
The setting of the story really makes the book work well. Louis Lamour sets the story in a small town. The town sets a picture in most people's mind of a small western town, that shootouts occur at all the time. The only place to stay in the town is a very small motel, with a restaurant called Maggie's next too it. German Shafer runs the restaurant and gives lots of information to Milo throughout the book. Everybody else lives on the outskirts of the town. Milo says, "Even a dude could come to love this land." He means it too, because he becomes kind of at home in the town also.
The characters really make this book good. They have a lot of good and bad characteristics, but most of the people there are pretty two faced. Milo Talon seems to be the James Bond of the Old West. He will do anything and everything to achieve his mission. There are also characters like John Topp, who follow Milo around the whole story and watch him, keeping him on his toes. John Topp and Milo end up going to battle towards the end of the book. The characters all range from no good mass murderers, to sweet old women that try to keep the story interesting.
The plot of the story stays very interesting throughout most of the story. The whole story leads up to the end through foreshadowing. Milo always see's things before they can happen. He always has a feeling that people are watching him and that somebody will probably try to kill him. Flashback is not really in the story until the end when Milo remembers, "John Topp had a belt with silver on it," he saw the reflection and knew it was him. The conflict stays strong all through out the story, like Jefferson Henry staying in the shadows, but still trying to kill Milo with his other men.
The language of the story consists of Milo telling the story in narrative. Imagery shows up a lot especially when Milo explores things, like when he talks about being stuck under the rocks after her got shot. If Milo's in trouble he uses a lot of imagery.
This book deserves 4 out of 5 stars because it really makes the reader nervous while reading it. The suspense of the book makes you never want to stop reading it. The story relates to a kind of James Bond, but in the early 1900's and in the western days, so the fancy cars replace the horses and the sweet guns are just pistols. This book will be all in all, worth your time.