Long Ride Home

By W. Michael Gear

Book Overview

There is a reason Long Ride Home has remained in print for twenty years. The novel is a classic. The gunman has become a romanticized American icon, but Gear dares to take us inside his gunfighter's troubled soul: that of a man teetering between destruction and salvation. Theo Belk is the quintessential gunfighter: rootless, ruthless, and deadly. In the fierce and lawless Western frontier of 1874 these traits were what was needed to stay alive. Haunted by the ghosts of the men he's killed, there is one man he has set out to destroy...Louis Gasceaux, the man who murdered his parents while a younger Theo watched. But the trail Theo's following is long and bloody...and Louis always seems to stay a few steps ahead. This is how it was--from gritty buffalo and gold camps to brawling, building towns like Denver, Cheyenne, and Dodge City, populated with ambitious dreamers, deluded fools, and pragmatic women.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0765322560
• ISBN13: 9780765322562
• Release Date: October 2008
• Publisher: Forge
• Length: 382 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent series 4 books

Books one and Two can be read as stand-alones but books 3 and 4 are a series. Excellent series - western based

Maybe it was just like this

Wow! What a novel. I almost want to say this is to western novels what "Andersonville" is to Civil War novels. The story morphs several actual wild west gunmen into "Theo Belk." Maybe those guys were that looney, or walking contradictions as Theo is. It moves at a quick pace and does the job of showing "Regeneration through violence" that "Blood Meridian" is suppose to do. Except this book does not have the creepy psycos of Meridian, or the surrleaism nonsense. As a side note. The author portrays the use and types of period firearms correctly. Being a lifelong history buff, it always ruined the story for me in westerns when the post civil war period is seen has having all cartridge revolvers. Really! (Those guys used cap and ball revolvers and some people did have the newer design S & W cartridge guns.) Judging by the old photos and writings, gunmen used the Civil War period firearms-period. Not the Colt "peacemaker" which came along after the heyday of the big cattle drives. A wonderful book any history buff would love. Well done, and done right. It grabs you and won't let go. It has the "you are there" affect. Very vivid.

Couldn't put it down

I picked this book up many years ago out of curiosity because I have read all of the archaeological series by him and his wife. I began reading it and couldn't put it down. The main character is completely believable and makes you want to follow him through his many travels. It's a great character study and a great way to see all the parts that made up the Old West. The character and events in this book have come back to me many times over the years since I read the book. It is one of the very few books I have read in my life that affected me very deeply.

Spellbinding non-typical western.

This book's first edition was in November 1988. I have read this same novel at least four times. Once you start reading, you can't put it down. If you love westerns, you must read this one.

This book is magnificent.

Gear has a talent.The way he uses vernacular is astounding.The characters are portayed as they would o' been back then.