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Rusty Beauquet
a book bubble about
The Reckoning
Literature & Fiction
Author Insight
The Influence of Louis L’Amour
With almost all of his existing works still in print, Louis L’Amour’s book sales are now well over 300 million. That’s a staggering number when you consider L’Amour’s books weren’t overly popular with the critics of his day. However, he wrote for readers rather than the literary critics. That’s why his books were and remain so popular with readers. I think we can distill the explanation behind the popularity of L’Amour’s writing into two things. He told his stories simply with an emphasis on action. L’Amour sought to entertain readers rather than to impress with overblown vocabulary or endless, extraneous detail. He attracted male and female readers alike who appreciated his simple, evocative prose. L’Amour gave readers bigger than life characters, but archetypes of both men and women that were like real people and believable. For us modern day writers of westerns, Louis L’Amour is the ghost we chase and will never catch. I don’t believe any author of western books will ever equal him, but there is much we can learn from him about how to tell entertaining stories.
Book Excerpt
The Reckoning
First, McNeil reached out his left hand and grabbed Rhodes' right wrist in a steely grip with the man's gun only half drawn. Then, at the same moment, McNeil raised the Colt in his right hand above his shoulder and slammed the barrel down on Rhodes' head, delivering a vicious blow. It happened so fast that Patrick would say later that he never even saw McNeil’s Colt clear the leather. Rhodes sat down like a pole-axed steer and then rolled over onto his face, unconscious. Instinctively, Patrick palmed his six-shooter but paused, staring at the unblinking eye of the muzzle of McNeil’s Colt. It looked like the open end of a rain barrel. With deliberate slowness, Patrick took his hand away from his gun and lifted both hands to shoulder level.
“You’re smarter than you look, Patrick,” McNeil said, twirling the Colt once before dropping it back in the holster. But he held Rhodes' six-shooter in his left hand.
“I’d been within my rights to kill you both,” McNeil said. To Patrick, the words sounded like the angry cracks of a bullwhip. “But Miss Lamar saved your worthless hides. I didn’t want to get blood all over her clean floor. You must thank her.”
Patrick looked at McNeil, dumbfounded.
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