Dead Man’s Walk - Larry McMurtry Audiobook

Written by Larry McMurtry
Read by Will Patton
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Lonesome Dove tetralogy: Book 1
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Release date: October 1, 1995
Duration: 14:34:54

Written after Lonesome Dove, this book is a prequel to that book. Hardly more than teenage runaways, Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call (”Gus” and “Call” for short) just recruited into the ragtag Rangers of the new Texas Republic.

As young Texas Rangers, they have much to learn about survival in a land fraught with perils: the blazing heat and raging tornadoes, roiling rivers and merciless Indians, but also the deadly whims of soldiers.

Rangers of the new Texas Republic, come face-to-face with death on their baptismal patrol as Gus, foolishly wandering away from his guard post, stumbles onto the grotesquely disfigured Comanche chief Buffalo Hump and narrowly escapes with the Indian’s lance embedded in his hip. Gus and Call return safely to San Antonio but, lured by myths of silver and gold, the hapless duo sign on to a small army led by a former seafaring pirate intent on liberating Santa Fe from Mexican rule. An unforgettable (and equally unlikely) crew of blackhearted villains, foppish officers and star-crossed heroes and heroines, the sorry little force heads west only to be terrorized by Buffalo Hump, then captured by Mexican militia.

With the ruthless Captain Salazar calling the shots, Mexicans and Americans are ordered to march toward El Paso. Along the way, Call is whipped nearly to death for a minor offense, and a murderous Apache stalks the group. Forced by Salazar to cross the high desert known as “dead man’s walk,” Gus, Call and company end up at a leper colony near El Paso, where they find salvation.

“Suffering from McMurtry’s usual coincidences and miraculous escapes, as well as from some stereotypical key characters and too much obvious melodrama, this falls short of both Lonesome Dove and Streets of Laredo. Still, it’s bracing entertainment in its own right, with McMurtry flashing his storytelling skills as he recreates the salad days of two flawed but all-American heroes adrift in the Old West.
–Publishers Weekly