Dark Canyon

by Louis L'Amour

When Gaylord Riley walked away from the Coburn gang, he had money and a dream. He worked hard and built a cabin, gathered a herd of cattle, and fell in love with Marie Shattuck.

But when he is confronted with false accusations of rustling and murder, Riley is forced to defend his new law-abiding way of life. Outnumbered and facing a lynching party, Riley is surprised when his old friends return to lend him a hand. But how can they help him and keep themselves out of jail? With the local marshal already suspicious of Riley, the Coburn gang will have to plan well and move fast. But that shouldn’t be a problem. Their reputation was built by doing just that.

Genres: Westerns, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Adventure, Classics, Action, Audiobook

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1, 1963

About the author

Louis Dearborn L'Amour was an American novelist and short story writer. His books consisted primarily of Western novels, though he called his work "frontier stories". His most widely known Western fiction works include Last of the Breed, Hondo, Shalako, and the Sackett series. L'Amour also wrote historical fiction (The Walking Drum), science fiction (The Haunted Mesa), non-fiction (Frontier), and poetry and short-story collections. Many of his stories were made into films. His books remain popular and most have gone through multiple printings. At the time of his death, almost all of his 105 existing works (89 novels, 14 short-story collections, and two full-length works of nonfiction) were still in print, and he was "one of the world's most popular writers".

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

"There were many varieties of men in the West, but this one had none of the diffidence of the average cowhand. Young as he was, he carried himself with a quiet assurance, yet with a watchfulness that reminded [him] of Earp or Hickok. But he was not one of those . . . " -- small town newspaper editor Sampson McCarty, attempting to figure out peculiar protagonist Gaylord Riley, on page 23

Thank goodness for a change of pace. After at least two consecutive L'Amour novels featuring the author's sometimes standard plot of 'tough loner leads a disparate group of individuals out of a tight spot on the frontier,' Dark Canyon pleasantly breaks away from that sort of narrative. A young outlaw named Riley turns his back on the thieving way of life - leaving behind a trusted quartet of older mentors who encourage him go straight - and attempts to set up a legitimate cattle ranch outside the thriving but otherwise inconsequential-seeming Colorado boom town of Rimrock in the 1880's. Of course, Riley quickly finds that the locale is akin to Peyton Place, and he soon finds himself as a pawn between the community's two warring power brokers. Additionally, he doesn't make things any easier when he is immediately smitten with the attractive bachelorette niece of one of said brokers . . . who just happens to be the object of unrequited and unhinged lust to both the other broker and his sadistic henchman. Things get deadly violent, and Riley soon discovers who he can truly depend on for required assistance. For such a relatively short novel (150 pages) I really enjoyed how L'Amour created a nicely detailed ensemble cast to populate this taut suspense-drama.

[Katie Hanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read, August 2020: Bumping this up to four stars because it's really quite solid, and I enjoyed it even more than I remembered.

Original review:

This wasn't the best L'Amour novel I've ever read; but it had all sorts of flashes and sparks of what makes his books great . . . just randomly scattered throughout the story. You would turn over a couple mediocre pages, and then, BAM. A gem. All in all, I feel I got my money's worth.

Gem-like things:
- The opening line. Pretty ominous.
- Also the closing line. Pretty grand.
- The Swedish/French/Irish/Dutch sheriff who pronounces his "b" like a "p," thereby royally confusing me with what I THOUGHT were typos
- Gaylord's friends calling him "Lord" forever after because he tried on a top hat that one time
- The fact that the romance was so lame and yet somehow oddly satisfying???
- Gaylord's plan of BUYING SEEDS TO PLANT FLOWERS on his desert-y mountain-y ranch, because yes I approve of this thought
- Kehoe being so #smooth
- Cruz being so #sarcastic
- Weaver being a grumpy old Mom Friend and total Hufflepuff . . . like don't even try to lie to me, son, I see you

If you're a L'Amour fan, give this a try! Or if you're just looking for a fun adventure, give it a try. (Be advised, it includes an attempted rape, but nothing graphic. And very little language that I recall.)

[Barb in Maryland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic L'Amour western, written in 1963. I first read this in July or August of 1968 and have reread it many, many times since. We have a cattle drive, several shootouts, a gang of bank robbers, as well as a low-key romance; all in 200 or so pages. It's one of my favorites by this author.
I loved young Riley because he was confident without being cocky, as well as level-headed, and resourceful. He knew what he wanted and methodically went after it. No wonder young Marie Shattock fell for him.
The real star of the book, however, is the locale. Louis takes us all around central and eastern Utah, vividly describing the canyons, mesas, hidden valleys, and awe-inspiring vistas.

Note: The cover at the top is from my first pb copy. The cover of my current pb copy is here: , which amuses me because it shows a herd of horses, not the herd of cattle that is a central point of this book's story.

[Paul O’Neill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable, but didn't set my world on fire. Still worth a read if you fancy a quick western.

[GoldGato · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s another Louis L’Amour Western, this time about a gang of robbers who want something better for their youngest member and themselves. They want to go straight, and they stake the gangling youngster to a ranch, so he can build a life for himself while providing future subsidies for the aging gunfighters. But the world is not easy in the wild west and the kid is going to have grow up very quickly.

The book begins with the setup of a stagecoach robbery featuring bad guys who may not be that bad. The leader has just added a new member to the team, a baby-faced gunfighter who upsets the other members of the holdout gang because they don’t know why he is there. But they learn to appreciate him and when it becomes clear that the west may be getting too wild even for them, they pool their money and tell the youngster to go find a place to build his own home and run his own ranch. Who knows, if he’s successful, they will have some future earnings, an old west pension fund.

Gaylord Riley is the name of the young man and although he may be young, he doesn’t lack steely resolve. When Riley finds his perfect land to build a ranch, he also finds trouble from jealous rivals. And someone may have recognized him from his gang days. He will need to pull off a major cattle drive using unknown helpers to gain the future he wants, for himself, his future bride, and for the men who made it all possible for him.

An hour later, unable to move, his body one vast ocean of pain, he saw the first buzzard in the sky. It swung in a wide, lazy circle. And then there were two.

As usual, L’Amour writes with an easy quickness that makes the story roll along quite briskly. I wasn’t sure about the initial setup, but Gaylord Riley is a character to admire. He seems to embody the ethos of the frontier, working hard and hoping his sweat and toil will come to something. In particular, I adored the supporting character of Sheriff Larsen, a Swedish Mormon who came from the Old Country to walk the tortuous Handcart Trail as a youngster. Larsen speaks with a lilt and sees much but says little. The reader hopes he will make it out alive because it was men like him, immigrants, who truly built the United States.

So, thumbs up again for L’Amour and his ability to turn a phrase to build character.

Book Season = Autumn (hard times)

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a fan of westerns, so it's no surprise that I liked this new recording read by Mark Deakins, and I'm grateful that Books on Tape continues to record L'Amour's novels. Sure, the plots and characters are formulaic, but L'Amour is a great storyteller, and here, especially, he throws in the familiar tropes of the genre: cattle rustling, outlaws, the redemptive power of the West, revenge, loyalty, the importance of home/settling down, and landscape. Gaylord Riley, a young man of sterling character, falls in with a group of outlaws--but they keep him on the periphery, believing him to be too good for that life. When he decides to leave the band, they all chip in so he can buy land to build a ranch--and he tells them they'll always have a place there. Life doesn't go as smoothly as one might hope for Gaylord--there's a smart young woman he falls for, but he almost becomes a pawn in a revenge scheme. Lots of action, betrayals, revenge; black and white characters with the band of outlaws turning out particularly well; plot-centered with an epilogue that explains everyone's fate; rather stilted old-fashioned language that sounds remarkably fine when read aloud, and passionate landscape descriptions; a romantic tone (both a love story and a surely romanticized view of the West), upbeat, earnest, and nostalgic. At the end, descendants of the main characters are camping in the spot where their ancestors played out their stories, only to have their guide tell them that the land was never occupied except by early Indians. When the young man pulls an old cartridge out of the fire--disputing that point--the guide says, "Better keep that. They don't make that kind anymore." That pretty well sums up L'Amour's position on characters in the Old West.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best name for a cowboy hero ever with Gaylord Riley. Gaylord is part of an outlaw gang which the other members decide to support him in a quest to go on the straight and narrow.

A good story with the baddie Hardcastle and his Machiavelli plans to get the beautiful Marie to be his wife. No guesses to who she ends up with. There is also an appearance by Tell Sackett. Gunfights, cattle drive and remote wild country all play their part in this entertaining Western.

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read many many L'Amour novels and would say this one is fairly typical of the bunch. A good story with some interesting characters...but not destined to win any prizes in literature. I'm certainly OK with that. After all, we need good stories to fill lazy afternoons while swinging in a hammock or while cozying up to the fire when trying to stay warm in the thick of winter.

This story is a bit different from many western stories you might come across, simply because the main character, Gaylord Riley, is an ex-outlaw, having rode with the Colburn gang. But he works hard to turn his direction around, preferring to earn an honest living and build a homestead. Of course along the way there are plenty of obstacles and getting around them is what makes this a story. I also enjoyed the cameo appearance of one of my all-time favorite L'Amour characters, Tell Sackett (portrayed by Sam Elliot in film adaptations).

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good western.

[Jerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Books like this are why I keep reading Louis L’Amour. A small cast of characters, a tight story, and some amazing writing.

Here a hoof touched stone, a saddle’s leather creaked, or a spur jingled. Somewhere wiry brush scraped on a leather chap, a restless horse pawed, and a man cleared his throat. They were small sounds, but different sounds, and every animal ear was alert, for none knew which was the quarry, none could be sure where the pursuit would end.

The story is a basic one: an outlaw tries to turn his life around while good men mistrust him and bad men use him. It’s what L’Amour does with it that makes it worth reading.

[Brian Durfee · Rating 4 out of 5]

L'Amour is really hit or miss with me. Some of his novels (The Californios, Flint, Hondo, Utah Blaine, Over On The Dry Side) are just so well-written and engaging, almost to the point of being magical. Others read like first drafts. This novel falls into the later catagory.

[Alyssa Kessler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this story as an audio book on a road trip and enjoyed the pacing. It is a straightforward story that was pretty predictable but still enjoyable. A easy read/listen if you like cowboy stories!

[jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

A damned good outing by Lamour. Beautifully descripted country. A solid blend of action and adventure. One of his better outings.

[Jamie Barringer (Ravenmount) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a story about a young man growing up and finding his own life in a rather hostile small town in an area that sounds like it is north and west of the Gunnison River, since the Dark Canyon's depth makes it most likely to be the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. So, perhaps much of this story takes place in Colorado, certainly along the western and northern border of Colorado. The romantic thread is very weak, but the book is short, so maybe there just wasn't space to make that part better developed. I liked the idea of a retirement plan for outlaws that forms a central idea in this book.

[Alexander Rolfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

My children are deficient in cowboy lore, so while gathering a passel of audio books for our cross-country road trip, I included this one. It was the only Louis L'Amour the library had, but it was fortuitous, as we camped for several days in the area he describes. And it has a cattle drive, rustling, outlawry, and all sorts of things the kids needed to hear about. They all enjoyed it, from my 11-year-old daughter on up.

[Jonny Spinasanto · Rating 4 out of 5]

”I don’t want to die in the dark.”

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nothing like a good Louis L’Amour story. The bad guys meet their Maker and the hero gets the girl.

[*Stani* · Rating 4 out of 5]

All of Louis L’Amour’s books have a theme and in The Dark Canyon, the theme is ranching and about a life of an outlaw.

With L’Amour’s books, the topic always feels well researched and authentic and this was the case here as well.

The story follows a young guy named Gaylord Riley, first a drifter, then as an important part of an infamous outlaw group and finally as an up and coming cattle rancher.

There is danger, romance, bad guys who create an opposition for our main hero, people, who stand with him and help him win at the end.

I guess that’s the beauty of Louis L’Amour books - they all follow a similar pattern in its heart, they all have a happy ending.

But along the way, you have the chance to glimpse the life in the western frontier from different perspectives and learn about different aspects of life from those hard times when the west was being created.

[Kevin Findley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe the fastest time on a L'Amour book for me. The author made our protagonist and four other characters come alive in just five pages. Simply amazing!

Riley and his partners start off as outlaws and finish up as what are arguably the most honest and honorable men in the book. Redemption is a part of many of L'Amour's novels, but I think it is showcased the best here in Dark Canyon.

No one, not even a character with just a few lines is given short shrift. Descriptions of the people and the landscaped are beautifully detailed, a cut above even for one of L'Amour's westerns. I cannot recommend this book enough.

Find it! Buy it! READ IT!

[Jay Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark Canyon takes place in what I guess to be Utah. The scenery is fantastic. The boy is staked by outlaws after riding with them a short time. No one knows he was with the Coburn gang. He picks up a few hundred Herefords and then gets more, cheap. Outlaws drive the cattle for him. He falls for the competing ranch owners daughter and a sly saloon owner is the one stirring the trouble wanting a range war. I would like to visit here.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. I gave it 5 stars not for its great literary qualities but because it was exactly what I wanted: a light, enjoyable western romance and on top of it one of my favorite L'Amour characters made a surprise appearance, Tel Sackett. This book is a very typical L'Amour story but a wonderful read.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better L'amour books. It actually does a good job at tying up all the loose ends.

[Hbenleon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exactly what you want from a Louise L'Amour book.

[Jeff Carpenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another good one from LL, but this one has a twist early in the story.

[Jeremy Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a standard western. I felt like the story was not very complex. It was a standard cowboy and gunslinger type story. It was fun and did what it did well, but there was nothing to set this story apart from the many others in the genre.

[Wilson V · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice break from true story’s
Simple tale of an outlaw turned rancher. Sometimes there nothing wrong with a simple story of love and hard work

[Allyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first western - got it at a thrift store. Was a great $1 purchase. Started a bit slow setting the backstory but finished with a few good gunslinging action scenes!

[Bob Hernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Liked the book one of the better books by Louis Lamour Bank robbers go legit after they get older and tire of running from the law .

[Mason Marquette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Personal Response
I really liked the book Dark Canyon. I liked how there was a lot of action in the book. I think the author does a really good job of detail, and it is easy to picture what is going on in the book. The book is not too long, and it is pretty easy to read. There is always something happening, and it never gets boring. The author also puts many different things into the book like action, adventure, and even some romance.

Plot Summary
The book starts off with Riley quitting the Colborn gang because the members of it give him a bunch of money to leave so he does not end up dead. He then rides to Rimrock where he deposits his money. After that, he goes to get cattle that many people thought could not be driven to his ranch. He gets help from the Colborn gang, and then he realizes that someone is trying to start a cattle war. Riley and Marie fall in love, and the cattle war never starts because the hanging party that came to Riley's was defeated. The sheriff realized that Riley had no other choice than to fight them.

Recommendation
I recommend this book to any high schooler. The book is more for male readers but female readers could read it also. This book is one of the authors easier books. It is also not very long so you can finish it quickly. I recommend reading this book if you like westerns.

Characterization
The character Riley changed because he started out as an outlaw. In the end of the book he was a caring and hardworking rancher. I think that this was because he quit the gang. I also think he changed a lot because he met Marie. At the end Riley ended up as a great person and not an outlaw.

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

2014: This might be the first book I've re-read without realizing that it's a re-read. Upon perusing my 2011 review, I can see that this book made very little impression on me in the first place, and the situation was not improved by a second reading. Knocking this back to two stars for being a sheer disappointment not once, but twice.

2011: Interestingly enough, this is the first L'Amour I've read in which I've was less than pleased with the writing. Everything happens "suddenly." That's fine as a plot device, but the word "suddenly" does not need to be used every time something sudden happens.

Other than that, this is as enjoyable as any other L'Amour out there. Perfect comfort escapist weekend reading, and short enough to be read in one or two sittings. (Three-star review)