Monument Rock [Hardcover]

Louis L'Amour (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 4, 1998

Monument Rock features eight Louis L'Amour Western stories that have never been published before: "A Man Called Utah," "Battle at Burnt Camp," "Here Ends the Trail," "Ironwood Station," "Last Day in Town," "Strawhouse Trail," "The Man From the Dead Hills," and the magnificent short novel, "Monument Rock." Here, for the first time anywhere, is a treasure trove of masterful storytelling from the author whose very name evokes the power and majesty of the great American West.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

More L'Amour?several newly discovered pieces yet to appear in print.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

The late (d. 1988), leathery, awesomely unstoppable (over 100 books still in print) L'Amour, still producing fluently from his grave (End of the Drive, 1997), offers one more gathering of unpublished tales, proving again that great writing laughs at death. Showing sheer contempt for slow openings, L'Amour's seven newly discovered short stories offer some breath-catching first paragraphs echoing with the cold steel click of a Colt .45 hammer being cocked. The lead story, ``The Man from Utah,'' polishes L'Amour's walnut prose to its glossiest grain. Bearing a fearsome reputation as a gunfighter, Marshall Utah Blaine arrives in Squaw Creek to investigate 14 recent murders (three were marshals) by a cunning bandit masquerading as an upright citizen. By a process of deduction, the shrewd Blaine narrows his suspects down until he has the killer. ``Here Ends the Trail'' opens with a High L'Amouresque Miltonic Inversion: ``Cold was the night and bitter the wind and brutal the trail behind. Hunched in the saddle, I growled at the dark and peered through the blinding rain. The agony of my wound was a white-hot flame from the bullet of Korry Gleason.'' This builds to an explosive climax that mixes vengeance with great-heartedness. ``Battle at Burnt Camp,'' ``Ironwood Station'' and ``The Man from the Dead Hills'' all live up to the melodrama of their blue-steel titles. ``Strawhouse Trail'' opens memorably with the line: ``He looked through his field glasses into the eyes of a dying man.'' And never lets up. The title novella tells of Lona Markham's unwilling engagement to six-foot-five, 250-pound, harsh-lipped Frank Mailer, who has ``blue, slightly glassy eyes.'' Will Lance Kilkenny, the mysterious Black Rider, save her from indestructible Mailer? Stinging stories of powerful men against landscapes you can strike a match on. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; 1ST edition (May 4, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553108336
• ISBN-13: 978-0553108330
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #756,552 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A monument to a great writer, October 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Monument Rock (Hardcover)

This newest collection of stories written by Louis L"Amour brings back several favorite characters such as "Kilkenny" and the "Cactus Kid". I really enjoyed the stories and the nostalgia they brought to my mind of the wild west and how life used to be.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars SOME MORE OF LOUIS' EARLIER PULP STORIES., September 23, 2009

By 

Kay's Husband (Virginia, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Monument Rock (Mass Market Paperback)

As the editor (Beau L'Amour, Louis' son) mentions, this collection of stories was unpublished in Louis L'Amour's lifetime. He further mentions that the stories "rounds up the stragglers in the Kilkenny, Bowdrie and Cactus Kid series.". He also mentions that Louis might have once planned to build a series around the Utah Blaine character. With the collection also containing the final Blaine and Talon stories.

For those not having this book at hand, the contents of its stories are as follows:

A Man Named Utah (Utah Blaine)
Battle at Burnt Camp (Cactus Kid)
Ironwood Station (Shawn Talon)
Here Ends the Trail (Race Mallin)
Strawhouse Trail (Chick Bowdrie)
The Man from the Dead Hills (Joe Billy Rock)
Monument Rock (Lance Kilkenny)

While all the stories are suitably enjoyable, some do stand out better than others, my favorites of the group are those having Utah Blaine, Chick Bowdrie, and Lance Kilkenny, as main characters closely followed by Ironwood Station featuring Shawn Talon.

If you are anything like me a story or two a night will finish the 244 page book in only a few nights. Many of Louis L'Amour's stories are better than this collection, had he lived longer we might not ever have seen these stories from the bottom of a close closet in print, however it is interesting to read what Louis had prepared in the mid-1950s for the 'pulp' magazines that died before he could find a publisher. At least one of the stories may have been directed toward the original, classic Saturday Evening Post magazine.

For a few hour's read these stories will entertain most Louis L'Amour fans and western readers in general.

Semper Fi.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the way the west really was, June 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Monument Rock (Mass Market Paperback)

Louis L'amour shows the reader interesting glimpses of the old west in this collection of short stories. Some of his well-known characters are placed in stories that keep you interested until the end. He has the talent of creating realistic scenarios that aren't always decided by gunplay and death. He shows the reader portions of the everyday life in the old west in a way that subtly reinforces the integrity of the people who really shaped this country. This is the way the west was truly won.