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Larry McMurtry

Dead Man's Walk (Lonesome Dove) Mass Market Paperback – June 1, 1996

by Larry McMurtry (Author)

1,118 ratings

Book 3 of 4: Lonesome Dove

Struggling with the harsh frontier as young Texas Rangers, Gus and Call share life-changing adventures with deadly natural disasters, incompetent officers, cunning Native American warriors, and romance. Reprint. TV tie-in.

Print length

528 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Pocket Books
Publication date

June 1, 1996
Dimensions

4.19 x 1.1 x 6.75 inches
ISBN-10

0671001167
ISBN-13

978-0671001162
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

McMurtry's prequel to his Pulitzer-winning Lonesome Dove spent 10 weeks on PW's bestseller list.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

""Dead Man's Walk "is a very good read . . . [It] will keep you reading [and] make you miss meals." --"Seattle Times"

""Dead Man's Walk". . . succeeds marvelously . . . resurrecting two brilliantly conceived characters and delivering a rousing tale of the Wild West."--Michael Berry, "San Francisco Chronicle

"

"Gee-haw! Larry McMurtry is back in the yarn-slinging business--with a vengeance. . . . Readers will gobble up "Dead Man's Walk"--a wild and wooly read--from cover to cover."--"Denver Post"

"In "Dead Man's Walk", McMurtry uses a simple, wry, immensely accessible storyteller's voice to ponder the same questions that Melville and Conrad did. This is a great book. . . . Larry McMurtry, at his best here, is one of the finest American novelists, ever. We are lucky he's around."--John Milius, "Los Angeles Times"

"McMurtry does great characters. Call and McCrae are real, lifelike, believable, and lovable. . . . McMurtry's stories are brimming with passion and page-turning excitement. . . It's good, good stuff."--"Kansas City Star"

"McMurtry remains a good storyteller, and he remains a master of dialogue, doing a sort of frontier version of Oscar Wilde."--"Washington Post Book World"

Publisher : Pocket Books (June 1, 1996)
Language : English
Mass Market Paperback : 528 pages
ISBN-10 : 0671001167
ISBN-13 : 978-0671001162
Item Weight : 9.1 ounces
Dimensions : 4.19 x 1.1 x 6.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #325,260 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #6,002 in Westerns (Books)
- #30,114 in Historical Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
1,117 ratings

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Customer reviews

5 star		71%
4 star		19%
3 star		7%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

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This book highlights the cruelty and barbaric nature of the Wild West with few if any bright spots.

Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2018

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Lonesome Dove is one of my favorite books but unfortunately I cannot say the same about Dead Man’s Walk. From start to finish this book is unrelentingly dire. This is a story of Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call and their fellow Texas Rangers partaking in a campaign that takes them from Texas to Santa Fe. On their way they encounter Indians, Mexicans, Scalp Hunters and Slavers. The brutality of the Wild West is detailed on almost every page to the point that it becomes redundant after a while. For the last three quarters of the book there is no respite from the suffering and cruelty that is experienced by the Rangers. Where Lonesome Dove had humor and hope, this book has none. Interesting from a historical perspective but a difficult read with few bright spots. Many plot lines are left incomplete or are irrelevant to the story.

19 people found this helpful

Helpful

Excellent first-in-the series of the Lonesome Dove saga

Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2018

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4 and 1 / 2 stars

In this novel, Woodrow Call and Augustus “Gus” McCrae are just young men who have joined the Texas Rangers. On their first ride out to survey a new road, they meet up with Buffalo Hump, one of the fiercest Comanche warriors on the plains. They lose two men, and are lucky to make it back safely to San Antonio.

On their next adventure, the troop heads out for Santa Fe, New Mexico – over a thousand miles away! They meet up with a tornado. Gus falls in love with practically every woman he sees. Gus loves to embellish his stories with outright fibs. Call has a cooler head and thinks Gus is more than a little lazy and spends too much time whoring and drinking. Call intends to save his money for better weapons. They finally get to the meeting place for this expedition and meet Caleb Cobb and his sidekick Billy Falconer. Caleb is not as Gus presented him and Billy is mean. Along for the ride is General Lloyd. He is a drunk and so out of it that he cannot ride his own horse, so he rides in a wagon.

Riding through the plains, Call had plenty of time to think about getting lost. The desolate countryside was daunting. The reader has to remember that there were no streetlights and no guardrails to help them along their way. There was nothing but blackness and the fear of losing one’s way at night. The fear of Indians and a horse going lame was another consideration.

I simply wouldn’t have made it. I’m not tough enough.

All of their little party is shocked when Caleb Cobb invites Buffalo Hump into camp to eat and parley. The men absolutely hate him and want to kill him. But they stay their feelings during the meeting. When Caleb wants to give Buffalo Hump Billy Falconer’s fine Holland and Holland rifle as a present, Falconer balks and threatens to quit. Cobb “resigns” Falconer and gives the rifle to Buffalo Hump who rides off without another word.

Later the Comanche set fire to the plains from three directions when the soldiers have their backs to a steep and deep canyon. Caleb Cobb dithers and the men just have time to leap over the edge of the canyon in order to save themselves. Several men die in the attempt and the horses run off. When the fire dies down, the men find themselves afoot with no food and very little water. The desert is unforgiving.

Call, Gus and Bigfoot are captured by the Mexican army. They are shackled and walking across the plains when the little camp was attacked by a grizzly. It scattered the frightened Mexicans, killed Captain Salazar’s horse and ran rampant through the camp. Call, Gus and Bigfoot got away and were lucky enough to find Caleb Cobb and a diminished troop of men. They marched without food or water for a while and were met by the Mexican army – hundreds of men, mounted soldiers and cannon. Captured once again, Caleb Cobb surrenders. Call is absolutely furious with Cobb.

They are escorted and on their way to Mexico City over a thousand miles away. The problem is that they have to cross an area called the dead man’s walk. Through sleet, bitter cold and without much food or water they march on. Then handed off to a humorless major and his soldiers for the remainder of their walk, they are told to bathe in the Rio Grande. It is very cold. Some of the younger of the Texans panic and start to flee. The Mexican soldiers run rampant on them, killing several despite the major’s yelling at them to stop, and Bigfoot as well yelling at the Texans.

When they get to the little town which is surrounded by feral dogs, they are told to pick blindfolded from a jar of beans. There are ten men left – and Mattie- and if they pick a white bean they will live. If they pick a black bean, they will be shot.

Gus and Call make it and then they meet a Scottish Lady Carey and her Viscount son Willy. The Lady has leprosy, but her son and maids do not. She proposes to the five men that they take her to Galveston. Since they are now housed in a leper colony and there are no soldiers about, they decide to go.

What follows is perhaps the most amusing and inexplicable journey yet. It is brilliant.

What a good novel this is. Across the plains of Texas and New Mexico and down the Dead Man’s Walk, Gus and Call manage to survive against all odds. It is a harrowing and scary journey of several thousand miles. (I wouldn’t have made it one in that environment.)

13 people found this helpful

Helpful

J. P Spencer

An American Heart of Darkness

Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2018

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Definitely not your father's Louis Lamour or Zane Gray, Dead Man's Walk is almost a cross between McCarthy's Blood Meridian and Conrad's Heart of Darkness. A prequel to Lonesome Dove but written afterwards, the two heroes of Lonesome Dove are shown here at the outset of their careers as Texas Rangers. Set in the 1840's, they participate in an expedition (based on a true incident) to take Santa Fe from the Mexicans. Along the way, they meet every kind of violent death: wild animals, sadistic and utterly incompetent leaders, incredibly hostile terrain and weather, and most notably exceedingly homicidal Comanches and Apaches. The tale is very well done with one reservation: I'm not sure what I make of McMurtry's portrayal of Buffalo Hump and Gomez. While the chief protagonists and necessary to telling the story of Gus and Call's development, they are almost cartoon Indians in the John Ford style (albeit a lot more competent, murderous, and sadistic). In the end though, they are a big part of this epic flight from death and they will be in my nightmares for a long time as they are in Gus and Call's.

8 people found this helpful

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Waltar Ego

The Beginnings of Gus and Woodrow's Relationship and Exploits

Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2018

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This book introduces the reader to the two Texas Rangers that one will follow throughout the Lonesome Dove series. It was engaging throughout the book until the very end...when it seemed to end quite quickly. Interesting character development, and it did a decent job of setting the stage for the ensuing books. If you are a fan of Western Genre novels, this should interest you. Lonesome Dove was the monumental novel in this series, and seemingly for books of this genre. Yet Dead Man's Walk (written after Lonesome Dove, but in terms of following the lives of the two rangers, is the first in the series), does a credible job in setting the stage for what's to come. If you're going to take on the series, I recommend that you read it. If you're a fan of this genre, by all means read it!

4 people found this helpful

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N. Hall

Essential Reading for Lonesome Dove Fans

Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2015

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McMurtry is a great writer who knows how to tell a terrific yarn. I'd wanted to read Lonesome Dove for a while. When I got the book, discovered that there were three others. I considered just reading Lonesome Dove by itself as it had been written before the other two, but ultimately decided to go with the series. Lonesome Dove was written first, but Dead Man's Walk is the first in the chronology. It covers the early days of the careers of Texas Rangers Gus and Call. This is probably the most bleak of the stories in the series, as most of the action takes place in the context of brutal encounters between the Texas Rangers and the Comanche tribe fighting to recapture the land taken from them by settlers. It introduces important characters and lays the groundwork for the books that follow.

13 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Gary M. Dobbs

Excellent....

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 13, 2015

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I've have decided to read the entire Lonesome Dove saga in chronological order which means I kick off with Dead Man's Walk which was actually the third book published following Lonesome Dove (chronologically the third book) and Streets of Laredo (a direct sequel to Lonesome Dove and chronologically the fourth and final book in the series) . I'd previously read the Pulitzer Prize winning, Lonesome Dove but the rest of the series were new to me, though I had seen all the TV movies based on the book. And to be honest now that I've read Dead Man's Walk I can say that the TV mini-series was pretty damn faithful with only a few cosmetic changes.

To clear things up the order of publication for the series:

Lonesome Dove (1985)

Streets of Laredo (1993)

Dead's Man's Walk (1995)

Commanche Moon (1997)

Though in chronological order the series goes:

Dead Man' walk

Commanche Moon

Lonesome Dove

Streets of Laredo

Dead Man's Walk then gives us the very early years of Gus McCrea and Woodrow Call and depicts how the boys first became friends and of how they joined the Texas Rangers. The book starts with Gus and Woodrow signed on as rangers with a road scouting expedition led by the inept Major Chevallier. During the expedition they are repeatedly attacked by Indians led by a deformed commanche called Buffalo Hump. During this early section of the book we get to know the important characters, especially Gus and Woodrow - their personalities are sketched out over a number of brilliantly written set pieces, usually involving the war chief, Buffalo Hump. Gus is the talkative, whore loving easy to get along with type, which his best friend, Woodrow is solid, dependable, serious minded and not all together likable. When Gus visits a whore he is in love with her and treats her with genuine affection, while when Woodrow visits he gets his business done and then gets out of there without a wasted word. The two men are polar opposited but they live and breath as real people on the page and the chemistry beteen them is excellent.

There are several other secondary characters who are equally well drawn - Matty, known as the Great Western, is the whore who throws snapping turtles at them men and generally allows them a poke on tick, Bigfoot Wallace is a mountain man with a fine line in storytelling, Shadrach is another mountain man, an aged character in the final years of his life. Then we have Long Bill Coleman and Johnny Carthage, two everyman types who provide one or two moments of comic relief as well as several truly poignant scenes.

A truly excellent book with a story that is richly drawn and truthful to the period - there is much cruelty that the author doesn't avoid in order to build up this very real story.

36 people found this helpful

luvyduvydoli

Larry mcmurty Pulitzer prize-winning books

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 12, 2019

Verified Purchase

Larry mcmurty has blown me away. I know a lot of folk say there is no character depth but I see plenty. Larry has touched upon something special in this book, he's touched on pure , raw human emotion and feelings.
These boys that the story follows ,are so well write and real, Larry describes fear perfectly , he describes love perfectly, he describes what makes us human. I particularly sympathise with Gus MCcrae , he has displayed the most emotion and true human actions. I.e knees knocking when the commanches first made an appearance. His love for the girl in the store in Austin. His strive to impress his fellow men. His whole journey has made me fall in love with Larry's style of writing.
It's an amazing read and it's truly deserving of its awards. Can highly recommend

4 people found this helpful

Mrs. Jacqueline D. Bond

Lonesome Dove is a must, in fact the whole set of books are a must to get.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 5, 2019

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The most exciting book about the old west and how the rangers and pioneers who went there and to start a new life and tame the west against lived their life’s. They endured all sorts of dangers, not just wild Indians, but the weather, the unlawfulness, and civilisation it’s self. The characters are so endearing and the story is told with such detail, compassion and truth you feel their pain and joy. A very exciting read that I couldn’t put down and just had to get the follow up book.

2 people found this helpful

Mr. B. Ramsbottom

McMurty has the drop on the West.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 26, 2020

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Thoroughly enjoyable read. The West comes alive with Call and Gus stumbling into their careers as Texas Rangers. McMurty displays a sympathetic appreciation of the indigenous peoples and presents even the most murderous accounts with a wry humour that smacks of reality. A brilliant introduction to the epic Lonesome Dove' and its characters.

2 people found this helpful

gronow

The Saga Begins

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 17, 2015

Verified Purchase

Usual McMurtry fodder eminently readable, nasty violence, boring when he spends to long on the thoughts and motivations of various characters. Don't know if the book reflects the real world of that time and place but it's McMurtry's slant on it and that's o.k. because he is an excellent descriptive writer. I suppose that "Lonesome Dove" is the best known and for me the best read of the quartet and having read that you will be very interested in "Gus" and "Woodrow" the main characters. This is the story of their earlier adventures and how they became Texas Rangers, a motley bunch if ever there was one! There is a wealth of other characters, some stayers some fall by the way but all interesting. Like the other books in the series this is a 'meaty' read and not to be undertaken lightly by the casual but for others well worth the effort.

5 people found this helpful

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