Rating: 
Summary: Disappointment after the first book
Review: It has been a couple of years since I read this book but the "BookMatcher" recommended it to me and I had to comment on how disappointed I was when I originally read it. I don't normally read Westerns but I read Lonesome Dove before the mini-series was on television and loved it so much I chose not to watch the movie (it could never compare to the novel.) Sequels are rarely as good as the original book and this was no exception. The author seemed to forget his character. In Streets the characters where constantly doing things that you would never see them doing in the first.
Rating: 
Summary: Call's still got it in the worthy sequel to Lonesome Dove.
Review: McMurtry shows us that not all sequels leave you unsatisfied. "Streets of Laredo" is an excellent book that shows a hero in his old age. It is both bittersweet and thrilling at the same time. We see Woodrow Call in his post-Gus McCrae days, taking on a bandit many years his junior. We see Pea Eye Parker, an unexpected choice for the last great Hat Creek member to follow Call, fighting his impulse to go on one last job with the captain. We see fear and hatred and loneliness and loss, and each emotion is conveyed in McMurtry's masterful way. McMurtry adds a special note of realism by using actual historical figures--John Wesley Hardin, often called the West's most prolific killer, Charlie Goodnight, one of the great cowboys, and Judge Roy Bean, the hanging judge, the Law West of the Pecos. He weaves these people with his fictional characters like Pea, the Captain, and Ned Brookshire to make a very effective and entrancing novel. "Streets of Laredo" is at times violent, amusing, depressing, and at all times interesting. A fine novel, and worthy of its predecessor, "Lonesome Dove." You can't go wrong with this one.
Rating: 
Summary: A Very Good Story, Just Don't Confuse it with Lonesome Dove.
Review: The first book of Larry McMurtry's I ever read was Lonesome Dove. That book enthralled me, making me wish he would re-visit the characters with a sequel. Eventually he did and "Streets of Laredo" is the result. The problem here is that you really can't read Streets as a sequel to Lonesome Dove, because if you do you will be extremely disappointed. The characters have changed so completely that they don't seem like the same people. If you can get over that hurdle then this becomes an exciting (if not rather violent) story based on the old west. The book starts off on the premise that the cattle ranch in Montana failed, and Captain Woodrow Call has returned to Texas as a sort of bounty hunter. Other main characters from Lonesome Dove include Pea Eye, his loyal helper, and Lorena, the whore from Lonesome who is now a school teacher and wife of Pea Eye. (Does anyone else think this is just too much of a stretch for these characters?) Call has been hired by a railroad tycoon to stop a mexican bandit from constantly robbing his trains. Along the way we meet old friends from Lonesome, and famous historical persons (Judge Roy Bean, John Wesley Harding, etc). The action is extremely exciting, the suspense riviting, and McMurtry's style of writing keeps the reader on the edge of their seat. As with a lot of his writing McMurtry describes the violence in VERY strong detail. This seems to be done to help the reader climb into the story and experience the situations. Very well done but also very disturbing. As we draw near to the end the ending comes out of no where and surprises you. The eventual hero is not who you would expect. Overall, this epic story is a blast to read. Again do not get caught up in the "sequel" thing, you MUST read this for it's own sake. I would recommend this for anyone who enjoys epic westerns, and for anyone who loves McMurtry's writings.
Rating:
Summary: Great writer from Texas saves the day!
Review: LONESOME DOVE grabbed me right from the start. The reader is part of the action in a way that is rarely felt while reading a book. The first chapters are wonderful character developers and intertain us along the way. Gus Mcrae and Woodrow F Call are of course the heart and soul of the story, but Newt,Deets,Pea-Eye and Jake Spoon help to make up one of the most colorful casts that has ever been on paper. The great thing that Mr. McMurty was able to do, was to give us so many characters and not one time bore us while we get to know them. The book has a nice mellow start with Gus and the pigs, and this reader was lulled into just enjoying an old Texas Rangers perspective on life. That the book would take off and drag us on such an epic journey was mind boggeling. The description of the geography in the beginning was not compromised in any of the following chapters,and enriched the wonderful cast of characters and story lines. The vast plots and sub-plots were all tied neatly together in the end, and the ones that needed to be cut loose were done so with class. With great writing that you'll find in the books of Jackson McCrae (CHILDREN'S CORNER and BARK OF THE DOGWOOD) and expert pacing that can be compared to his STREETS OF LAREDO, this is one of the finest books I have ever read, and if anyone deserver a Pulitzer for their work it was Larry McMurtry. And he got it.
Rating:
Summary: Not Lonesome Dove...but An Excellent Sequel
Review: "Streets of Laredo" is the much-anticipated sequel to Larry McMurtry's finest and most memorable novel, "Lonesome Dove." Because of the quality of the first novel, which ranks among this reader's favorites, almost any follow-up would be disappointing as "Lonesome Dove" is a book that few readers will forget. "Streets of Laredo" suffers from the fact that Gus McCrae, one of the two cantankerous and aging cowboys from "Lonesome Dove", is not present in this book. The repartee and interaction between the voluble McCrae and the taciturn, curmudgeonly Call was one of the great strengths of the first novel and now, in "Streets of Laredo", Call, the less colorful of the duo is at the center of the story. He is hired to track down a Mexican bandit, Joey Garza and along with an Eastern "tenderfoot", a hapless deputy sheriff and "Pea Eye" Parker, one of the secondary characters from "Lonesome Dove", he pursues the bandit across the windswept panhandle, through the hardscrabble Pecos country and into Mexico. McMurtry populates the Streets of Laredo with real life characters drawn from western history including the prolific killer John Wesley Hardin, the cattleman and trailblazer, Charles Goodnight and the colorful Judge Roy Bean who set himself up as "The Law West of the Pecos." In "Streets of Laredo" Woodrow Call is an aging man, not destined for more adventures and so the awkward "Pea Eye" Parker, who is now a husband and a father, married to the beautiful and good hearted whore Lorena, is elevated to a major character, torn between the pull of home and hearth and duty to his comrades. Like most of McMurtry's books about the historic west, this novel is brutal, full of violent deaths. However, it also features strong and beautifully written female characters as the author understands that the plains were not settled by the feint of heart, that it took bold men and resourceful, strong women to tame a wild country. "Streets of Laredo" does not measure up to the preceding "Lonesome Dove" but it is a fine book nonetheless, with a straightforward narrative drive that provides the reader with a compelling and haunting tale of love, loss, duty, pain, and ultimately, redemption.
We beat the drum lowly and shook the spurs slowly,
And bitterly wept as we bore him along;
For we all loved our comrade, so brave and so handsome,
We all loved our comrade, although he's done wrong...
From "Streets of Laredo"
Perhaps the saddest old cowboy song, written about 1860
Rating:
Summary: Caution: Read this review before you read the others!!!
Review: There are several reviews regarding this book that follow, which actually gives the plot away, not only for Streets of Loredo-but for Lonesome Dove as well!! REVIEWERS TAKE NOTE: IT IS INAPPROPRIATE TO DISCUSS THE KEY PLOTS IN A REVIEW! PERIOD!
As far as Streets is concerned it is a good book-although not up to the Lonesome Dove, in my opinion. McMurtry is still a great writer, and this book proves not to be an exception.
Rating: 
Summary: Ok, but after Lonesome Dove, a bit of a let down
Review: This book was ok. I enjoyed the story. It was nice to find out what happened after Lonesome Dove. But this story doesn't nearly live up to the standard set in Lonesome Dove. I think Call without Gus just doesn't work quite as well. I probably would have liked this better if I hadn't read it right after Lonesome Dove.
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