10 Best Louis L’Amour Books (2024)

Bio

Louis Dearborn L’Amour was born on the 22^nd of March, in the year of 1908, in Jamestown, North Dakota, United States of America. L’Amour was a prominent American author of both western novels and short stories. The works of L’Amour were predominantly written in the Western genre, though he does have work in the sci-fi, historical fiction, and non-fiction genres.

As we noted, L’Amour was born and raised in Jamestown, North Dakota. His mother was Emily Dearborn L’Amour, while his father was Louis Charles L’Amour. Louis was French-Canadian by descent from his father’s side and Irish from his mother’s. His father worked as a large-animal veterinarian, a broken, and a local politician.

Best Louis L’Amour Books

Settling Down

Throughout his career, what with the many bank failures which took a lot out of the upper Midwest people, Louis and his adoptive brother John left school and took to the road, by themselves, in 1923.

While on the road, Louis met many of the people that would find themselves in his works later on. In the 1930s, after traversing many a country, Louis Dearborn L’Amour settled down in Choctaw, Oklahoma. Now, with that said, let’s see what the best Louis L’Amour books are.

The Sacketts Series

Fortune Found

Having covered L’Amour’s Sackett series in order, we can now take a look at the books. Upon finding some half a dozen golden Roman coins in the Devil’s Dyke mud, Barnabas Sackett used what he discovered for means of trading in America.

However, his nemesis, a certain Rupert Genester, wants him eliminated. A promise from the past imperils the inheritance of Genester, so as Sackett is preparing to board his ship for departing to America, he is assaulted and thrown into a pirate ship’s hold.

Unknown History

The company was ordered by Genester to dispose of Sackett somewhere in the Atlantic, but Sackett succeeds in making his escape and gets to the Carolina coast. The beauty is unmatched, but he must go back immediately to find out the truth about his heritage. There isn’t a single of Sackett’s books in the whole of the L’Amour Sackett series order that we don’t recommend.

Talon and Chantry Series

Just Amazing

The Talon and Chantry series is one of the best Louis L’Amour series, but also a terrific source for finding the best L’Amour books. These particular Louis L’Amour novels in order go like this:

Borden Chantry
Fair Blows the Wind
The Ferguson Rifle
The Man from the Broken Hills
Milo Talon
North to the Rails
Over on the Dry Side
Rivers West

Man With No Fears

Some of L’Amour’s best western novels can be found among L’Amour’s Talon books. Borden Chantry was the name of the marshal in question. He was a young, lean, strong, and rugged man, one that had buried his fair share of people in the cow town where he lived. Each of these buried men had succumbed to the wounds from a fair fight.

Matched Force

However, it just so happened that some strange, ominous gunman shot and killed a man in the coldest of blood. This was repeated five more times before Borden was given the task of finding out who the perpetrator is, why he is doing what he is doing, and eliminating him so that the people of the town can live peacefully once more. A nice pick for being Louis L’Amour’s best book.

Kilkenny Series

Must-Read

L’Amour’s Kilkenny series belongs among the best Louis L’Amour series for a variety of reasons which we will explore. The series is home to some of Louis L’Amour’s best books, as well. Now, let’s take a look at these Louis L’Amour’s books in order:

The Rider of Lost Creek
The Mountain Valley War
Kilkenny
A Gun for Kilkenny
Monument Rock

Indebted

Now, having ordered these particular L’Amour books in chronological order, let’s see what Kilkenny is all about. Lance Kilkenny is a man that has a serious debt that needs to be paid. The debt in question is to his friend, the one that saved his life, and that friend is in danger at the moment from being killed in a range war. However, when Lance makes the effort to stop all the senseless fighting, he understands that the fight goes deeper than he expected.

Joining the Fight

Whoever it is that is causing all of the trouble must have some large plans for the Live Oak country, at least that’s what the army of gunmen points to. Nita Riordan, an attractive and fearsome Apple Canyon Saloon owner, gives the warning to Lance that the man pulling the string wants him dead, too. That’s more than enough incentive for Lance. These are rightfully some of the best-selling L’Amour books.

Last of the Breed

Man That Soars the Sky

Last of the Breed belongs among the top L’Amour books and, to many of the author’s fans, it might just be the best Louis L’Amour book ever. Last of the Breed was published in the year of 1986, spanning a bit less than four-hundred pages. It stands as being one of the best-rated L’Amour books.

One of the novels that brought L’Amour and his works to the level of fame that he enjoyed towards the end of his life is Last of the Breed. Last of the Breed is the gripping, genuine story of a certain United States Air Force Major going by the name of Joe Mack, a man that is for more reasons than one born at the wrong time.

Alone in the Wilderness

While flying his experimental aircraft, he is forced to go down in Russia. There, he is sent away to a Soviet prison camp, one that he swiftly escapes. However, to weather the terrible Siberian weather and to make it out alive he must summon up all of the skills that he learned from his Indian forebearers. As the story of Joe Mack continues, the reader can’t help but feel glued to the page and invested fully into what is going to happen next.

Hondo

Hondo is one of those L’Amour books that if we were forced to give our picks for the Louis L’Amour books ranked, it’d have to be placed among the best. Hondo was published in the year of 1953, spanning some two-hundred pages. Out of all the Louis L’Amour book reviews, Hondo is perhaps the first book we’d recommend.

Ways of the Apache

The powerful, coursing, and unkind winds of the desert weather were by no means friendly towards the man. He was a very large, sizable, fearsome, and fear-striking man with some of the broadest shoulders you’ve ever seen.

He was a man born into the ways of the Apache people and all their traditions, with a special expertise in knowing how exactly to survive and stay alive. For the uninitiated, Hondo is also one of the best Louis L’Amour books for high school students.

Center of a War

She, on the other hand, was just a young woman trying to raise her young son on a somewhat secluded ranch in Arizona. In between Angie Lowe and Hondo Lane, the man mentioned above, was no one save Vittoro, the warrior, a man whose people were getting ready to stand against the white men and their people.

Before long, Angie, Hendo, and everyone else are pulled into a war between the people and a battle for love and honor. One of the best books by Louis L’Amour.

The Walking Drum

One of the Last Novels

The Walking Drum is yet another standalone book, one that rightfully belongs among the ten best Louis L’Amour books. The Walking Drum was published in the year of 1984, a few years before the author’s passing away. The Walking Drum is, in our opinion, one of the best L’Amour novels, too.

Man of Many Talents

Kerbouchard is a man that is given to many a thing. He is at once a man that loves – a lover –, a man that knows and learns – scholar –, and a man that does battle with fiends – a warrior.

Throughout all his life, Kerbouchard has been a seeker of certain insights and fortunes that are sure to bring him many a peril, many an obstacle, even ones that could take his life. One of these, namely over the steppes of Russia, beyond the Byzantine beauty that is Constantinople, Kerbouchard is thrown into a brilliant time.

From Top to Bottom

It is here that from the slave galleys to the castles, from the secret chambers of the castle dwellers to the blade clanging battlefields, and even into the Valley of Assassins’ fortress, Kerbouchard wanders and his tale has only just started.

On his way, he will meet many men and women, with many of them being dangerous to his wellbeing, but that is not going to stop, thwart, or hinder Kerbouchard from going forward on the journey that he has set out on. A great pick for being the best Louis L’Amour novel.

Hopalong Cassidy Series

Just Brilliant

L’Amour’sHopalong Cassidy series is the home to some of the best-rated books of L’Amour. It is a series comprising of four books, all of which are deserving of their place among Louis L’Amour’s best novels. Now, this particular L’Amour series in order goes as follows:

The Rustlers of West Fork
The Trail to Seven Pines
The Riders of High Rock
Trouble Shooter

To Save or Not to Save?

Now seeing as we have put the list of Louis L’Amour books, at least of this series, in order, let’s see what they’re all about. The Rustlers of West Fork is a very tense, action-packed novel, but you don’t need us to tell you that.

Hopalong Cassidy has been given a task to take a sizable fortune in banknotes and give them to his old pal, Dick Jordan. As he makes his way towards the Circle J, he finds out that the ranger, along with Pam, his daughter, are being held against their will by an outlaw band.

Been There, Done That

The band in question is led by the merciless Avery Sparr and his partner Arnold Sopper. Even if Hopalong somehow manages to help the two of them out and to lead them through the Apache country, they will be in constant danger from the outlaws that have given their vows that they will gun them down. Such things have yet to deter Hopalong, so he goes ahead and saves the lot.

The Lonesome Gods

Left to Die

The Lonesome is one of those books that once you’ve read it, you know you’re going to have it by your side again and again, even if it’s years into the future. The Lonesome Gods was published in the year of 1983.

The Lonesome Gods follows a young boy named Johannes Verne. Johannes Verne’s mantra, while he traversed the fearful landscape of the desert, as he was left alone to just perish by his grandfather, was that he was Johannes Verne and that he was not afraid of anything.

Right to Live

On his way through the desert, there was little hope that he could navigate himself properly, but that’s when he came by the outlaws, the ones that would end up saving him. However, even once he has been saved and raised from the perdition that surely the desert was, he still knows and reminds himself of the hatred his grandpa felt for him.

With time, as he is raised by Indians and becomes the friend of one mysterious woman, Johannes turns out to become a mighty adventurer and a scholarly man. However, things seldom turn out so nicely in so easy a fashion.

The Haunted Mesa

Ancient People

If we were going to give our picks for the best books in order by L’Amour, there are barely any books that we would rank higher than The Haunted Mesa. The Haunted Mesa, one terrific book on Louis L’Amour’s books list, was published in the year of 1987. The Anasazi were the so-called ancient enemies of the Indian people known and familiar to all others as the Navajo.

The Anasazi were the ones that haunted the lonesome, abandoned, and barren cities that streak the canyons and plateaus present throughout the Southwest area. For hundreds upon hundreds of years, the inexplicable vanishing of the Anasazi was a source of irreconcilable bewilderment to historians.

Mike Raglan

However, one man named Mike Raglan, an investigator that is known and praised for his talents, was asked by an old friend through a letter in despair to come to the plateau of the tenebrous desert.

Of course, the mystery had its helping hand in pulling Mike Raglan towards the desert, but as he crosses not just the border of the city, but also that of man’s laws, The Anasazi’s story becomes revealed. The Haunted Mesa remains one of the most important books of L’Amour’s whole career.

Flint

Respect and Fear

Flint is the last of the books written by L’Amour that we will be taking a look at today, but it is not the least. Flint was published in the year of 1960, with a page count of some two-hundred-and-fifty pages in total.

When he was just a seventeen-year-old, he departed from the West, with a past with no roots and a violent trail of bloodiness behind him, and he made his way towards the East. It was right here, in the East, that he turned out to be among the most affluent and rich financiers in all of America, but also one of the most feared, most loathed individuals in all of America.

A Last Stand

As a cancer that can scarcely be cured was tearing its way through his body, he journeyed back to New Mexico to die all alone. But, just as a range war starts up, Flint makes a choice to aid Nanci Kerrigan, a rancher in the local area, with more enemies than he could possibly hope to count.

Buckdun, an assassin that is known for being relentless is there, too, what with a land swindle just about to be made. Flint is the last hope that Nanci Kerrigan has in the world, but she is his last hope, as well. The Bowdrie Series is another series that we recommend picking up!

Michael Englert

Michael is a graduate of cultural studies and history. He enjoys a good bottle of wine and (surprise, surprise) reading. As a small-town librarian, he is currently relishing the silence and peaceful atmosphere that is prevailing.

Bio