Rating: 
Summary: Very disappointing!
Review: Having read and enjoyed earlier works of McMurtry, I looked forward to this new series. However, after about 100 pages into this one (I kept hoping it would get better), I decided it wasn't worth my time. Poor character development and mediocre diaglogue certainly were factors. But having to read on almost every page about which characters were sleeping together or lusting after each other got to be downright boring!
Rating: 
Summary: Sin Killer II Wanted
Review: Mr. McMurtry came up with a wonderful story, but it is so disappointing for it to come to an end and then have to wait for who knows how long before the next installment. What is the holdup? We want them now.
Rating: 
Summary: sad effort
Review: I've read nearly all of Larry McMurtry's books, so obviously I'm a big fan of his. But what happened here?? The characters are more caricatures than characters, the premise ludicrous, the scenes unbelievable. I shudder to think that there are three more books to come in this series that is so wasteful of a brilliant writer's talent. Larry, your time could be better spent.
Rating: 
Summary: Hopefully a prologue
Review: 3 stars only because McMurtry off his game still is pretty good. The whole thing reads like the first part of a larger book. That kind of makes sense since this is the first book of a series. The result however, is that this one seems very imcomplete, even shallow. Anyone of the Lonesome Dove series could have stood on its own. That's not the case with this one. The following books in this series will need to be stronger to save this one.
Rating:
Summary: Not My Kind of Read via McMurtry
Review: I find it difficult to be critical of any of McMurtry's efforts, but this book was so foreign to what I had expected, so much so, that I disliked the foolish characters and their ridiculous behavior. Some have said it is "black comedy," and I expect that is what it is, since one cannot take these characters seriously. Frankly, I am disappointed. I can't imagine how the second book of the series can improve on this one. I will first read reviews.Evelyn Horan - author
Jeannie, A Texas Frontier Girl, Book One Jeannie, A Texas Frontier Girl, Book Two
Rating:
Summary: An outline of a book
Review: I slogged through all 300 pages of "Sin Killer," despite a nagging suspicion that I was wasting my time. I should have paid attention to my suspicion. Larry McMurtry's latest Western novel falls far short of "Lonesome Dove," which I did not want to end. "Sin Killer" certainly has some interesting characters, but even at 300 pages it seems more like an outline than a completed story. And the extremely abrupt ending is just as unsatisfying. Many of the characters, such as Lord Berrybender and his daughter, Tasmin, are boring caricatures; indeed, after a few chapters I didn't really care what happened to them. Many of the minor characters are throwaways, merely window dressing to make it seem like there is depth to this story, and they are all to often dispatched with only a few lines and are quickly forgotten. The title character, Jim Snow, also is a minor character compared to Lord B and Tasmin, and appears in precious few scenes. The portrayal of Indians is very weak, and is again made as caricature. Finally, the attempts at humor are often labored and out of sync with the parts of the story which are intended to be dramatic. This is not a serious novel, and I would not recommend it to anyone who has become accustomed to McMurtry's quality efforts, such as "Lonesome Dove" and "Streets of Laredo." The one positive note is that this would be a very good treatment for a television film. In the hands of a good director, the characters would have all the depth needed for a two-hour tele-pic. Maybe that's McMurtry's intended audience.
Rating:
Summary: Sardonic look at the Old West
Review: I needed something to kill time while traveling and this book did the trick. The author attempts and delivers a fine western from the view of a multifacted character line up that included a British family, Native-Americans, Cowboys, and other people that made this book interesting. While this is certainly not his best work, this is a good book. The character development is good, but there are so many characters to remember I had to continually look back at the cast of players to remember who the author was talking about. I think, though many were killed in the first book, as the series progresses, the characters will become more familiar. Overall, a solid B of a book
Joseph Dworak
Rating:
Summary: No Lonesome Dove
Review: It was a bummer for me. I expected more good story telling like Lonesome Dove, Commanche Moon and Dead Man's Walk. Was I disappointed! Then it just stops almost in mid paragraph. There were also so many characters that I had to keep flipping back to the page he gave us with all the characters. Now I know why he had to do that.
Rating: 
Summary: The Osbornes meet the Old West
Review: I enjoyed the book. The story is set in the 1830s, before the arrival of John Wayne and the rest of the cowboys and within living memory of the Lewis and Clarke expedition. The Berrybenders are pre-Victorian British nobility, spoiled, eccentric and certainly not constrained by notions of honor, duty, and monogomous relationships. Their disfunctional entourage sails up the Missouri river on an early steamer to the Yellowstone. Along the way their arrogance and naivete lead to a series of misadventures. The book deals rather frankly with sex and violence but this is a reflection of the raw, untamed world McMurtry uses as background to the story. The only thing I disliked about the book is that it's part of a four part series and I'll have to wait several years to find out the ending
Rating:
Summary: Enagaging story of the old West
Review: McMurtry lives up to his usual standard with a romantic novel, full of touching stories, comfortably told, involving grand adventures, and people living on the edge. There is something for everyone in this book. A grand tour along the Missouri River in 1830's America.
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