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: Don't expect another "Lonesome Dove"
Review: This is not one of Larry's better books. It was lightweight and at times slow. Though it is one a series of books, I didn't feel the urge to go run right out to buy the next in the series, "Wondering Hill".
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: AN AUTHORITATIVE READING OF AN EPIC TALE
Review: Returning to the setting he captured so memorably in "Lonesome Dove," Pulitzer Prize winner Larry McMurtry again focuses on the untamed American West. Noted stage/screen actor Alfred Molina gives a vividly authoritative reading to "Sin Killer," an epic tale of an aristocratic English family who journey up the Missouri River to see our country's 1830s frontier. Planning to hunt Lord Albany Berrybender boards a river boat accompanied by assorted Berrybenders and a retinue of servants. Family members include his wife who is ill prepared for the brutalities of this wilderness, and children Bobbety, Buffum, Mary and Tasmin. Without a doubt, Tasmin is independent and brave, doing more than her share throughout the trip and overseeing all. That is until she meets one who needs no overseeing - Jim Snow. Called Sin Killer, Snow is a good looking, irascible maverick. He's a religious zealot who divides his time between preaching and battling Indians. Tasmin and Snow fall in love. Few need to be reminded of the brilliance of McMurtry's storytelling or his remarkable prose, stunning in its clarity. The first in an announced tetralogy, Sin Killer is as awesome as was our frontier and totally captivating. - Gail Cooke
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: Entertaining Easy Read
Review: This is the first of four stories about an English Noble, Lord Berrybender, and his family on their travels through the American West in 1832. This book has an unusual Pickwick Papers style plot where one event leads to another. Unlike the Pickwick Papers there is plently of violence as the huge cast of characters is gradually winnowed down. Many of the deaths are abrupt and comical. The book is entertaining and unpredictable to say the least. It is one of the more unpredictable stories I have come across in recent years.
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.
| 
