Rating: 
Summary: A pleased reader
Review: ..., I wondered why I would buy it. But, Larry McMurtry has always been a good author,even at his worst. SURPRISE!! I enjoyed this book immensely, and look forward to the next one. The idea of putting a "civilized" family in an "uncivilized" environment is not new. The difference is that this is so real. In the primal environment of the prairies, the rules and manners of so called civilized people just don't work out. The situations described are realistic. The humor and pathos of violence is made visible. I wondered why they could not understand that the prairie and plains and it's people are different, but this is because of their arrogance in the face of death. The characters are credible, their reactions realistic. Jim Snow and Tasmin Berrybender are delightfully described. Lord Berrybender and his entourage are outrageous! Laugh aloud humor results from theme of civilized and savage coming in contact and reacting.. The critics are wrong. This is a great novel, a great idea, and should look well on the screen. Bob Chadwick
Rating: 
Summary: What was he thinking?
Review: As one other reviewer has stated, this book is certainly no Lonesome Dove........Although I very rarely give up on a book halfway through, I didn't even make it halfway through this one. The characters in this book seem cartoonish, and their circumstances are impossible to sympathize with. If you must read it, hoping for another Lonesome Dove, get it at the library. Don't waste your money by buying it.
Rating: 
Summary: A Good Start
Review: If a reader is looking for another Lonesome Dove, it's not here. But if a reader was satisfied with the sequel and prequels of that work, then they should be very well pleased with this one. There is more humor in this than I have seen previously. I like the Native American perspective much more than Commanche Moon. I found myslelf falling more in with the tone and feel for the story towards the end of the book, resulting in eagerness for those to follow. I like the excerpts at the beginning of chapters and accompanying chapter titles, but find the chapters to be too short. Overall was left with a satisfaction closest yet to that of the Pulitzer winner.
Rating:
Summary: a good read
Review: I think this was a really good book...I loved Lonsesome Dove,and the other books that followed and while this book is not as good, it does have the same kind of quirky characters...those Berrybenders(and thier entourage) are pretty out there...but for the time and place and where they are from,and where they are traveling, not really...the reviews I read after finishing this book, were not all that good, but can anyone think that it was a picnic to travel as they did and not have some of the problems arise that did for them....while some things that happened were sad, I found this book also amusing and wanting to find out what next could happen....cannot wait for the next one to come out....hope it does not take long!
Rating:
Summary: No Believable Characters, No Believable Story
Review: Once in a very great while Larry McMurtry publishes a story with no sympathetic (or even believable) characters in it at all. None. In "Sin Killer" you will meet a multitude of people, none of whom are worth the effort. They are all stupid, most are cruel, and many just so much grist for the author's cartoony violence mill. When several are most bloodilly killed or raped or maimed (no one kills, rapes or maims his characters with as much perverse glee as McMurtry) the reader simply could not care less. There is no History here either, as the few "real" historical characters on this goofy steamboat ride are no more real than the entirely ficticious ones they companion. Plus most of these historical figures were recorded to have been elsewhere at the time the story takes place, so that someone who knows a few things about the "real" West will only roll their eyes at the inaccuracies necessary to the plot. Which brings us to the fact that there IS no plot... "Sin Killer" is simply an exercise in one-damn-thing-after-another, with no conflict, no twists, no story really. And two more volumes on their way in which to tell it.
Rating: 
Summary: ROLL ON McMURTRY
Review: It is difficult to argue with the publishing success of McMurtry or with his continuing saleability based on the earlier LONESOME DOVE. What one might argue with is the borderline fantasy with which the author rolls off characters from his arch pen, or arch word processor, whichever the case may be. It is these slighted characters who are so stock dimensional and thereby faulty and not so much the story narrative-- splashed out on the broad canvas of easily managed frontier and western myth-- though the latter in its glib effrontery sometimes offends as well.
Rating:
Summary: McMurtry at his best
Review: I loved this book from start to finish. Larry McMurtry introduces us to characters we would like to know better. I am already trying to find out when his next book in this series will be available. I hope soon.
Rating:
Summary: Very enjoyable
Review: After buying this book I read some of the poor reviews here, and wondered if I had wasted my money. But I was surprised to find that Mr. McMurtry has written another fine novel about the American West. No one makes the Old West seem more real to me than Larry McMurtry. For an author forever burdened by his masterpiece "Lonesome Dove," he has done a great job. My biggest complaint is it's too short!
Rating:
Summary: Sin Killer
Review: I must disagree with Maggie101 on her review. I have rated it with 4 stars only because I can't wait to read the other 3 books of the series. Sin Killer is right in line with Larry'y style of writing that I so loved in Lonesome Dove. You must read beneath the surface of what each character stands for. His descriptions are brutal and gory, very much as I am sure it was in the new West! Not for the faint-hearted or those that need to have everything spelled out for them. I can just picture the loony unpredictable English family as he writes it. If you liked Lonesome Dove and the style that he used in that book, you will enjoy Sin Killer. I only wish it did not come in four books. I wanted to keep reading
Rating: 
Summary: superficial . . .
Review: And no, that isn't a compliment! I have loved most of McMurtry's books, but I wasn't sure I could hang with this one. The characters seem to have no real motivation. They act and speak like cardboard--what a change from McMurtry's usual style. It's just hard to imagine real people behaving in the ridiculous way they do in this book--their sexual conduct, their relationships with one another; they are all caricatures. Perhaps this is his point--his way of poking fun of British aristocrats? If you're used to getting to know McMurtry's down-to-earth, ring-true characters and seeing their inner desires and motivations, this book will not satisfy. At the end of most of McMurtry's books, I'm sad to say goodbye to the characters--but not this bunch.
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