Streets of Laredo - Larry McMurtry -------------------- 2 Stars

I think I made an error in deciding to read this book. I had recalled about 10 years ago reading Lonesome Dove and loving it. And, while that memory is fairly accurate, I misremembered giving it 5 stars when, in fact, it only was a 4 (review here). In retrospect, I think I loved the TV miniseries, though the book was still solid. Hoping that this sequel might provide a similar level of enjoyment, I deep dove into Streets of Laredo.

If you are not aware, Lonesome Dove and Streets of Laredo both tell the story of Captain Woodrow Call, a bounty hunter in the West in the late 1800s. Both books include a variety of interesting characters and interesting story arcs for most main players. Also, we get some great action based on the interaction between the "good"
and "bad" guys. Usually this includes killers and/or other types of lawbreakers and Captain Call and others who are trying enforce the law.

In general, I really enjoy the "old west" genre of books. Again, Lonesome Dove was one of my favorites and I figured this would be an entertaining and enjoyable read like many others. Unfortunately, I really struggled to enjoy this novel. While there were occasional exciting passages and chapters, I really struggled with slow pace and meandering drama (or lack thereof) throughout the story. Besides Captain Call being featured like a secondary or tertiary character, I found the other featured characters uninspiring and unengaging.

My other complaints come from the author's writing style. Again, I found Lonesome Dove so exciting and engaging but found this novel to constantly be disjointed and wandering. There were multiple characters that seemed to have little to no background that would be lightly featured for no apparent reason. There were many chapters that were included that I didn't feel moved the novel forward. And, while the ending was slightly satisfying, a long epilogue was offered seemingly to ensure that every character casually mentioned had some sort of finality. I found it unnecessary.

I acknowledge that may viewpoint on this book may be flawed. While I believe it's universally accepted the Lonesome Dove is the far superior novel, this book has strong reviews on Amazon and Goodreads so clearly many others enjoyed this book more than I did. As always, I leave up to readers to draw their own conclusions.