Rating: 
Summary: A fine piece of storytelling.
Review: Reading and hearing the criticism of this book, it seems obvious that the naysayers read Lonesome Dove with a romantic's eye. Don't.As other well-written works repeatedly demonstrate -- contemporary novels, such as The Last Picture Show, and historical ones such as Buffalo Girls and Anything for Billy -- McMurtry is anything but rosy-eyed about his characters. Like George Bernard Shaw, McMurtry creates stories that are interesting and valuable, but also realistic. People seem to disappointed with the content of Streets of Laredo, but the reality of the West is that it was a brutal, violent place. Viewed through the eyes of an aging denizen like Woodrow F. Call, it would naturally seem even more so, particularly viewed against the rather cold backdrop of encroaching modern civilization. The actions and reactions of a Call, Lorena, even PeaEye Parker, all make perfect sense in this book. Would you expect the practical Woodrow to suddenly become a dashing hero with a sunset in the background? Of course not. Thus, an old Call finds himself bedeviled by a young, clever, ruthless killer. It wouldn't happen any other way. Would a mature Lorena do anything that wasn't practical, or at least deeply personal? Not in the least. So she's married to someone who is predictable, but also extremely reliable. And so on. The new characters introduced in the Streets of Laredo are as well developed and interesting as we've come to expect from McMurtry. He even manages to make a Brooklyn accountant seem intriguing -- no mean feat, if you think about it. And for all of the complaints about the graphic nature of some of the action in Laredo, no one can reasonably argue that McMurtry has lost his facility with words. As always with McMurtry, the prose flows lyrically; he remains one of the most underrated craftsmen of the novel.
Rating: 
Summary: a brilliant, painful book
Review: Streets of Laredo is a great book. McMurtry shows, from the first page, something few writers ever show: His characters are human. They die. Gus died in Lonesome Dove, and Newt and July also died at the beginning of Streets of Laredo. Now besides Call, these two were my favorite characters, and when I read that they died on the same page, I neraly put the book in the trash. Then I realized something: McMurtry is honest. He doens't care if we want Call to claim Newt, or July to live happily ever after with his son Martin, or for people to understand the pain and sorrow Call keeps hidden from the world (my own personal opinions) He shows us that life is violent, sad, and ironic. The biggest irony is that the very horse Call gave his son (come on, we all know he is by now) is what killed him. McMurtry makes us realize that no one ever lives happily ever after the way they want to. Just a quick note: Although I love the series of Lonesome Dove and rather frantically read through every book numerous times, sometimes I wish McMurtry had just left it at Lonesome Dove. At least then everyone could pretend that maybe, just maybe, someone in the book could live happily ever after.
Rating: 
Summary: Just missed.
Review: Streets of Laredo is a great story filled with adventure, however, it does not do justice to Lonesome Dove. It begins about 20 years after the conclusion of Lonesome Dove. Larry McMurtry hardly tells of the charactars from his previous masterpiece exept for Lorena, Captain W.F. Call, and Pea Eye Parker who are lead on a wild adventure. The Hat Creek Ranch in Montana and the men who worked it are only briefly mentioned. It seems as though Larry McMurtry was tired of the Lonesome Dove storyline. If you read this book, read it as a story of an adventure, not as a sequel to Lonesome Dove.
Rating:
Summary: Engaging, but too long
Review: Streets of Laredo is an interesting and engaging book, but too long. McMurtry repeats himself such as the times when Joey Garza keeps thinking that he is going to his mother's house to ahve his wounds cleaned. Other characters' thoughts are also repeated unnecessarily. This makes a long story even longer. Yet the characters of this novel are interesting. Joey Garza's hatred of Maria, his mother, is left unfinished. The reader knows his attiude is inocrrect, but Joey never realizes it. Also how he became bad is left to the reader's imagination. Minor characters appear in this book, who require circumstances. Doobie Plunkert appears as a rash, immature girl. Yet she will have some relationship to the story toward the end as her husband Deputy Plunkert roams Texas with Woodrow Call and his posse. The story of this couple and that of the accountant Brookshire and his wife Katie seem to serve as reminders that people live and die and are promptly forgotten. Perhaps also this is McMurtry's way of showing how relentless the brutality was in the developing west. The impact of all these deaths was depressing. Despite some of these problems Streets of Laredo continued where Lonesome Dove left off. I wish McMurtry had not killed all those people in the former book. It would have been nice to have seen Newt again.
Rating:
Summary: A good book that I wish I hadn't read
Review: Streets of Laredo, set in Texas and Mexico in more or less the 1890's, is the sequel to Lonesome Dove. Anyone who's read the author's other work will know that his novels are a progression of character deaths, often pointless and cruel. This one was even more depressing than that. Use of language in this book is generally evocative, but occasionally, particularly in the section from Doobie's perspective, becomes downright simple-minded and annoying. There are a lot of repeated phrases. Characterization is excellent, sort of. The reader gets to know the characters. The reader gets to care about the characters. Then the characters mostly die, or worse. It's a bummer. The plot involves a manhunt for various different brutal outlaws. It's about the end of Captain Call's career, and the ongoing story of Pea Eye and Lorena, now married with a large family. Secondary characters include the return of Mox Mox, the various men involved in Call's manhunt, the outlaw Garza's downtrodden yet plucky mother Maria, and fictionalized versions of John Wesley Hardin and Charles Goodnight. Mostly it's exciting and fast-moving, but there are some annoying tangents -- Maria running off to deliver a baby right at a climactic moment especially frustrated me. One unbelievable element of the plot was the amateur amputations and terrible wounds suffered by the characters -- without cauterization, ligature, tourniquets, or anything else. Realistically, the amputee in particular should have bled to death in minutes. The end, however, I did not enjoy. The whole thing with the little blind girl was sentimental and frankly creepy. The main character's downfall seemed like an act of pointless cruelty on the author's fault -- I wondered if it was meant to be fate, some kind of karmic punishment for deeds done (or more, not done) in earlier volumes. I still didn't enjoy reading it. The title, taken from a sad traditional ballad about a dying cowboy, seems appropriate here. In many ways this is a well-written book, but there are things in it I wish I hadn't read. Take your chances.
Rating: 
Summary: A ridiculous cartoon using Lonesome Dove characters.
Review: The aimless wanderings of Call mirror the writer, who apparently knew he needed alot of violence, but couldn't quite string the segments together.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling
Review: The antithesis of Lonesome Dove. The regret, despair and tenacity of an old man torn apart by his failure to declare himself as the father of his son, and who feels deserted by those closest to him.
Rating:
Summary: An absolutly fabulous book
Review: The book was full of realism. The characters were very well described. It was full of suspence and I couldn't put it down.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Good Story, Just Don't Confuse it with Lonesome Dove.
Review: The first book of Larry McMurtry's I ever read was Lonesome Dove. That book enthralled me, making me wish he would re-visit the characters with a sequel. Eventually he did and "Streets of Laredo" is the result. The problem here is that you really can't read Streets as a sequel to Lonesome Dove, because if you do you will be extremely disappointed. The characters have changed so completely that they don't seem like the same people. If you can get over that hurdle then this becomes an exciting (if not rather violent) story based on the old west. The book starts off on the premise that the cattle ranch in Montana failed, and Captain Woodrow Call has returned to Texas as a sort of bounty hunter. Other main characters from Lonesome Dove include Pea Eye, his loyal helper, and Lorena, the whore from Lonesome who is now a school teacher and wife of Pea Eye. (Does anyone else think this is just too much of a stretch for these characters?) Call has been hired by a railroad tycoon to stop a mexican bandit from constantly robbing his trains. Along the way we meet old friends from Lonesome, and famous historical persons (Judge Roy Bean, John Wesley Harding, etc). The action is extremely exciting, the suspense riviting, and McMurtry's style of writing keeps the reader on the edge of their seat. As with a lot of his writing McMurtry describes the violence in VERY strong detail. This seems to be done to help the reader climb into the story and experience the situations. Very well done but also very disturbing. As we draw near to the end the ending comes out of no where and surprises you. The eventual hero is not who you would expect. Overall, this epic story is a blast to read. Again do not get caught up in the "sequel" thing, you MUST read this for it's own sake. I would recommend this for anyone who enjoys epic westerns, and for anyone who loves McMurtry's writings.
Rating:
Summary: Good ending to a great series
Review: The fourth book in the series (Lonesome Dove was written first, but is actually third), Streets of Laredo is the most reflective and least adventurous story. There is still plenty of adventure, but the focus is on one character, the aging Call on a quest to find a killer. As usual, McMurtry writes a story that goes nowhere and everywhere at the same time. His stories are realistic and detailed, almost prosaic, but they are also universal and compelling. Some reviewers say that McMurtry is not a great writer. But by what standards are they judging, and what difference does it make? It's hard to beat McMurtry at sheer story-telling power.
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