The Quick and the Dead [Paperback]

Louis L'Amour (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1982

When Duncan McKaskel decided to move his family west, he knew he would face dangers, and he was prepared for them. He knew about the exhausting terrain, and he was expecting the punishing elements. What he worried about was having to use violence against other men—men who would follow him and try to steal the riches that he didn’t even possess.

Yet bandits were only part of McKaskel’s worries. For a mysterious stranger, Con Vallian, had appeared one night and saved his life. But was Vallian’s true interest Duncan’s wife, Susanna? And, more important, how did she feel about him?

As they push on into the wilderness, Duncan must discover who is the greater threat—the thieves outside his camp or the enigmatic stranger within.…

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Con Vallian knew the best way to stay out of trouble was to mind his own business. Then he stopped for a cup of coffee at a stranger's campfire and found himself guiding a family of greenhorns across the prairie -- fighting a pack of rustlers on one hand and some mighty unpredictable Indians on the other!

From the Inside Flap

Con Vallian knew the best way to stay out of trouble was to mind his own business. Then he stopped for a cup of coffee at a stranger's campfire and found himself guiding a family of greenhorns across the prairie -- fighting a pack of rustlers on one hand and some mighty unpredictable Indians on the other!

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (May 1, 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553280848
• ISBN-13: 978-0553280845
• Product Dimensions: 4.1 x 0.6 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #230,794 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:

4.0 out of 5 stars Late Fer Dinner?, April 9, 2002

By 

Confederate (Bethesda, MD) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Quick and the Dead (Paperback)

I started reading The Quick and The Dead in New Mexico last year at a bed & breakfast and only now got a copy and finished it. L'Amour's style of writing is exceptional and his ability to spin a yarn is enviable.

The Quick & The Dead is a page-turner and, like other works of the author, can teach people about the rough and rugged outdoors and the challenges faced by trekking out into the wilderness. It cannot, however, convey what would possess a sophisticated family to leave the safety and security of the East and head out to a land with no doctors, no lawmen, but with plenty of Indians and bad sorts.

The suspense in the book may keep you up late at night reading it, but the last few pages wrap up very quickly -- maybe too quickly. Almost as if L'Amour was late fer dinner and his wife was callin' him to c'mon. But it also ends wonderfully and the book is highly recommended.

I want to read more of this author. And there's plenty to choose from.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars You'd think with a title like The Quick and The Dead I wouldn't be surprised by all the dead., April 13, 2010

By 

Elizabeth A. Hart (St Louis, MO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Quick and the Dead (Hardcover)

You'd think with a title like The Quick and The Dead I wouldn't be surprised by all the dead. The Quick and The Dead was my very first "real" western. It was a nice short book and was supposed to be the proverbial toe in the pool. I came away feeling like someone had come up behind me and shoved me in. And, it wasn't pleasant.

The Quick and The Dead is a novel about a small family making their first foray into the west, tenderfoots they are called. During all of this they meet up with the main character Con Vallian. Con was the impossibly perfect frontiersman. He doesn't have many faults and goes around showing everyone how perfect he is and how dumb the supposedly main characters really are. He is the perfect western man and is a gentleman with a bit of education to boot. Swoon worthy, I suppose but, while I liked the character, the way he was written got on my nerves rather quickly.

Louis L'Amour, at least in this novel, was all about telling the story, and very little about showing it. There were only occasional descriptions, just enough to paint a lukewarm picture. I didn't really feel like I was there at all. Though, in the end, that was probably a good thing the novel could have turned out down right gory considering that (in the manner of most horror/thrillers) several characters become The Dead.

My last complaint is the fact that there was a bit of a plot hole in the novel. I'm not used to reading stories with plot holes, as normally I either tend to miss them or forgive them. With this one, though, while there were ways to explain it away he went to such lengths to spell every thing else out for us (sometimes multiple times) that it seemed like simply something he missed instead of something he left unspoken. He also set up a lot of characters for great final face offs and then several of them didn't end up happening. Some might view them as plot twists, I just viewed it as a cop out.

Basically, if you like westerns this might be a cute little deviation for you. If you don't, or only like quality westerns, give this one a pass. Duncan wasn't the only one ready to see Con on his way by the end of this book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good pioneer story, June 13, 2000

By 

Denny Smith - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Quick and the Dead (Paperback)

The title of The Quick and the Dead is great but it probably would have been more appropriate in some of Louis L'Amour's other books. Nevertheless, like all of L'Amour's books, it is a great story and certainly worthy of reading. The book moves a little slow but keeps the reader primed with periodic twists in the plot. Two of the main characters, Susanna McKaskel and Con Vallian, alone make this title worth reading.