Rating: 
Summary: A strike-out for Larry McMurtry
Review: A realize that everytime at bat cannot produce a home run, but Larry McMutry this time has written a complete strike-out. I am used to much better things from his writing. Lonesome Dove and most of it's spinoffs were excellent. I cannot help but wonder if someone else wrote this book. I have felt this way about Steven King among others. It seems that they run out of things to say and are only churning out words to fullfill a contract If this is supposed to be the first of a four part series, I doubt that the rest are worth anyones time or money !
Rating: 
Summary: Fast-paced, classic McMurtry
Review: The best thing about the book is knowing that there are three more to come in the series! Although not undiluted classics like the Lonesome Dove sagas, these books are great if you enjoyed the westerns of McMurtry.The book has more farcical elements, particularly the outrageous Berrybender family: rich English gentry who come to America with all their servents, rent a paddleboat, and head up the Missouri for adventures amusing and tragic. And in the classic McMurtry way, often amusing and tragic at the same time. The stories contain McMurtry's usual breathtakingly callous attitude towards death. Important characters are dispatched left and right with scarcely a fanfare. I've always appreciated with McMurtry that death comes suddenly, not proudly, and he spends no time dwelling on sentimentality. Life is full of unpredictability...so is death. But the tone is a bit lighter, with a tinge of romance, a bit more sex than usual for McMurtry, and in general it feels like a really talented writer has decided to loosen up and go slumming a little. The great thing is that it makes the book easy to zoom through, and because McMurtry can't help being a good writer, we still know we've been in the hands of a master. The book really deserves 4.5 stars, not 5. But I HIGHLY recommend it, particulary for McMurtry fans.
Rating:
Summary: The Berrybender books are very, very good.
Review: _____________________________________
This a quick minireview of the whole Berrybender series, now complete with the fourth volume -- it's really one long novel, and an omnibus edition can't be far behind. A *very* odd bunch of English aristos visit the American west in the 1830's and have adventures. A few of them even survive <G>.
This is McMurtry in antic farce mode, but with a base level of cruelty & violence that may squick some. And don't get too attached to your favorite characters! He's as good a nevelist as any now writing, and knows the history of the American west very well, indeed. And doesn't let real history get in the way of the story <g>.
The past is a foreign country, and McMuurtry's treatment of 1830's American history is strange enough to be sfnal, I thought. Anyway, I had a great time reading the Berrybenders. Second only to _Lonesome Dove/Streets of Laredo_ among his historicals, I think, though not much like those. Very, very good.
Happy reading--
Pete Tillman
Google "Peter D. Tillman" +review for lots more reviews
Rating:
Summary: Saccharine Drivel
Review: McMurtry has always relied on cuteness, but some of his books have had other, redeeming qualities. In this book absolutely nothing else is going on. Up to page one hundred, when I gave up, not one of the many characters had uttered a believable line of dialogue or exhibited a plausible reaction to any situation. I'm not sure what McMurtry intended, but this book with its mostly English cast ends up seeming like a second rate, unfunny imitation of P.G. Wodehouse.
Rating:
Summary: Fast-paced, classic McMurtry
Review: The best thing about the book is knowing that there are three more to come in the series! Although not undiluted classics like the Lonesome Dove sagas, these books are great if you enjoyed the westerns of McMurtry. The book has more farcical elements, particularly the outrageous Berrybender family: rich English gentry who come to America with all their servents, rent a paddleboat, and head up the Missouri for adventures amusing and tragic. And in the classic McMurtry way, often amusing and tragic at the same time. The stories contain McMurtry's usual breathtakingly callous attitude towards death. Important characters are dispatched left and right with scarcely a fanfare. I've always appreciated with McMurtry that death comes suddenly, not proudly, and he spends no time dwelling on sentimentality. Life is full of unpredictability...so is death. But the tone is a bit lighter, with a tinge of romance, a bit more sex than usual for McMurtry, and in general it feels like a really talented writer has decided to loosen up and go slumming a little. The great thing is that it makes the book easy to zoom through, and because McMurtry can't help being a good writer, we still know we've been in the hands of a master. The book really deserves 4.5 stars, not 5. But I HIGHLY recommend it, particulary for McMurtry fans.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't expect another "Lonesome Dove"
Review: Yes, I know it's supposed to be satire.
Yes, the dialogue is delightful and quaint.
Yes, Larry McMurtry (who's written more screenplays and novels than God himself) is the author. That doesn't magically transform "Sin Killer" into a good book. I got this is a gift, so I spent no money on it, but I *still* feel cheated. If you've ever read McMurtry, skip this book; it will shake your faith--usually well-earned--in his writing. If you're not familiar with McMurtry's works, don't read this; it's not at all representative of his genius. I'm going to re-read "Lonesome Dove" just to get the bad taste out of my mouth from "Sin Killer".
Rating: 
Summary: A Tetralogy?
Review: I just finished reading "Sin Killer" which is the first of a four book "tetralogy" on the American West in the era soon after the Lewis and Clark Expedition. My initial reaction is, why a tetralogy? "Sin Killer" is a 300 page book with 62 chapters (62 Chapters!) and plenty of conversation. A little editing and a slightly smaller yet still very readable font and this is a 200 page book. Why aren't all four books included in one epic? At the price of approximately $25 per volume I think that is a fair question. Should "Lonesome Dove" have been a 5-parter? Actually, it was a trilogy of sorts with a present future and past set of books but they were all full-volumed. Larry McMurtry has always been good with keeping his stories moving at a quick pace and loaded with plenty of conversation and interpersonal relationships. In his later novels, he also has an over abundance of outrageous characters. "Sin Killer" certainly fits this mode. We find a European menagerie of off beat travelers many of whom are gone from the story before we have even the slightest idea of who they are. The main characters begin to emerge but it's obvious more will be needed to complete a four book saga. Usually Mr. McMurtry spends a bit more time setting up his characters than he did here. The action is constant and the book move from one crisis scene to another. However, all the action can't seem to hide the impression that the author cranked this one out way too quickly. I doubt that very many readers have found themselves endeared by the characters that are left. I suspect the sales of volume two will be off considerably from volume one. However, the voyagers are just about 100 miles from where I live so this reader WILL get volume two and hope for a significant improvement.
Rating:
Summary: Hugely disappointing!
Review: After enjoying McMurtry's masterpiece "Lonesome Dove," I had high expectations for this book. However, I can honestly say that it is one of the worst books I have had the misfortune of reading. The numerous characters are unlikely caricatures and the rapidly occurring events are equally ridiculous. There is never an opportunity to understand or care about any of the main characters, and each surprising turn left me rolling my eyes and wishing the book would simply end and spare me the trouble. The tongue-in-cheek language used both in the narrative and in the dialogue suggest that it was meant to be a farce, but the plot unfolds with such ponderous self-importance that I wonder what the author could possibly have been thinking.
Rating: 
Summary: What a Wonderful Romp in the American West!
Review: It's idyllic, funny, romantic and picturesque. The Mandans might not have seen it this way, but as long as the reader knows that it's a fun read. Although laced with some tragedy, the overall story is laden with the amusing and idiosyncratic Berrybender family and this makes even the tragedies seem less painful. As they work their way up the Missouri river in 1832 on their "floating Europe", the Berrybender family intends to reach the Yellowstone River by winter. And so the tale begins. The precocious Tasmin meets the Sin Killer himself, Jim Snow, and thus begins a central story in the novel. Along with this are the travails of Tasmin's father; Lord "B", her sisters, mother and other ship hands. We also meet Indians (of course), French fur trappers, buffalo and the Great Plains. This book is a picturesque, well-written and memorable tale that left me looking very much forward to the next installment.
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