Passin' Through: A Novel [Paperback]

Louis L'Amour (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1985

It seemed the perfect place to lie low. The owner of the ranch was an attractive gray-haired lady who had once been an actress. The other woman was a beautiful, fragile-seeming blonde. They needed repairs done, and he needed to disappear for a while.

The first sign that things were not as they should be was when a Pinkerton man questioned him about a missing woman. Then he accidentally found a will belonging to the previous owner of the ranch. After that, a young lady showed up in town making claims that the place belonged to her.

Worried that his hideout was turning into a battleground, he didn’t know what would be more dangerous, staying or leaving. For a man interested only in passin’ through, he suddenly found himself entangled in a deadly struggle….

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"I'm just passing' through," the rider said when they asked him his name. And from then on, in the high country around Parrot City, he was called just that: Mr. Passing' Through, a man who rode a blue roan with a skull and crossbones brand and didn't know to keep to himself. And he wouldn't keep to himself. Because something about a parched and dusty ranch appealed to him, and something about a woman's hair made him think of not being alone, and something about a scheme to grab the land away from its rightful owner made him want to stay and fight. And so he stayed and fought. Because liars, killers, and cheaters were coming after Passing' Through with murder in their eyes, and a gun had a way of making him feel at home.

From the Inside Flap

"I'm just passing' through," the rider said when they asked him his name.  And from then on, in the high country around Parrot City, he was called just that:  Mr. Passing' Through, a man who rode a blue roan with a skull and crossbones brand and didn't know to keep to himself.  And he wouldn't keep to himself.  Because something about a parched and dusty ranch appealed to him, and something about a woman's hair made him think of not being alone, and something about a scheme to grab the land away from its rightful owner made him want to stay and fight.  And so he stayed and fought.  Because liars, killers, and cheaters were coming after Passing' Through with murder in their eyes, and a gun had a way of making him feel at home.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; 1st Printing edition (September 1, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553253204
• ISBN-13: 978-0553253207
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.7 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #127,497 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

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good Western and a good mystery, March 20, 2000

By 

Top Dragon (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Passin' Through: A Novel (Paperback)

I have read more than 30 Louis L'Amour books and I rank this one in the top 5. It is a bit more involved than most, combining the western story with a mystery plot. And as always, I love to read the descriptions of the landscape and the people of the South West. Life is full of choices but you could do worse than chosing to spend an evening with "Passin' Through"

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book !, September 17, 2008

By 

Latour07 (Paris, France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Passin' Through: A Novel (Paperback)

For those who think that the western genre is low, I strongly invite them to read this book. The surprise is at the appointment. I acquired this book in 1986, in Miami at a Greyhound stage, having nothing to read. What flash did strike my guts when I started the reading! The pages turned themselves. The story is exciting. The characters lived right out from this mythical Farwest. What talent the Louis L'Amour to sustain its exciting stories! Thank you Mister L'Amour !

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Story, April 1, 2000

By 

"ofurstinn" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Passin' Through: A Novel (Paperback)

A man who came to be called, Passin' Through escapes from a lynching on a horse that nobody wants, a horse named Robin, known as "The Death Horse" , with the skull and crossbone brand, because all who owned or rode him died soon after. Not being superstisious Passin' comes to like the horse, for Robin is, after all, a good horse. A special relationship developes between man and horse but when Robin takes Passin' to a ranch where two ex-actresses live, he rides straight into trouble and a mystery he has to solve, even though his sences tell him It's none of his business. After all, he was just passin' through. I found this to be a good and entertaining novel, my biggest regret being that Robin, "The Death Horse" did not have a bigger part in the story. It's still a well above avarage Louis L'Amour novel, and well worth it.