Monument Rock: Stories

Kilkenny #includes "Monument Rock"

by Louis L'Amour

This priceless collection of once lost stories brings to life a time of desperate violence and true courage in a wide-open country of fortune seekers and dreamers, lawbreakers and pioneers. A newly sworn-in marshal must outwit a mysterious killer who’s fleecing his neighbors while secretly cutting their throats. . . . A young drifter, wounded in a gunfight, finds a chance to change his ways—but he must be willing to pay with his life. . . . A fiercely independent woman and a mysterious stranger take a desperate stand against those out to drive her from her home. . . . And in the haunting short novel Monument Rock, a shadowy horseman delivers a terrifying message to an innocent young woman—the shocking truth about the two men closest to her heart. History, humor, action, and adventure fill the pages of these masterpieces, told by one of the foremost storytellers of our time.

Genres: Westerns, Fiction, Short Stories, Historical Fiction

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1998

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

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the 90th Louis L’Amour book I’ve read so I guess it is fair to say I’m a fan. I tend to read only three or four each year however so it’s also fair to say that I’ve been reading them for a very long time. In fact the first western book I ever read was L’Amour’s Killoe when I was around 10 or 11 years old.

Given that history, I pretty much knew what I was going to get in this volume. Six short stories and one short novel (the titular “Monument Rock”) are included and represent the last of Louis L’Amour’s here-to-fore unpublished Western short stories. As I expected, they were all wonderful stories, and as a collection, they rank among the best. What I did not expect, was that each story in the collection features characters from previous novels and short stories, many of them series characters. Men like Chick Bowdry, Utah Blaine, the Cactus Kid, are included as well as the last Talon story. The novella is the final Lance Kilkenny story, perhaps my favorite L’Amour character outside of the Sackett family.

Wonderful stories all but probably not the best place to begin reading the works of L’Amour stories due to their nature of using continuing characters. For me though, it’s a great capstone for all of them.

[Brian Fagan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read 10 or 15 L'Amour westerns, and Monument Rock is the best of them. It's actually a novella, packaged with 7 short stories in this collection, published posthumously in 1998. In Monument Rock, the legend of the Black Rider, supposedly the ghost of a murdered man, is rekindled when he is spotted riding alone in the high rocks of the Blue Hill ranch. Definitely one of L'Amour's best creations.

I often learn new words in L'Amour's works - this time I picked up "tinaja" - a clay jar, but also used to describe a surface pocket in bedrock below a waterfall; "tapadero" - a leather hood protecting the strirrup, often used when riding through brush; and "ladino" - a westernized Spanish-speaking Latin American.

The short stories are:

A MAN NAMED UTAH: A new sheriff hits town after a string of unsolved murders.

BATTLE AT BURNT CAMP: After being beaten and robbed by Kit Branch's men, the Cactus Kid happens upon a young woman alone in the desert, who tries to take his horse. He ties her hands, and they head toward Branch's site.

IRONWOOD STATION: Two men who meet in an Indian shoot-out ride to the nearest town. They realize that they are about to witness a stage robbery. Very good.

HERE ENDS THE TRAIL: A wounded rider out in hard weather with a gang after him. Very good.

LAST DAY IN TOWN: Four cattle rustlers in a hidden canyon are discovered by a lone man who's angry enough to try to stop them.

STRAWHOUSE TRAIL: A man discovers a rider shot in the back and takes the body back to town, only to be let in on a mystery.

THE MAN FROM THE DEAD HILLS: A woman is shocked to see a man on foot approaching her property from the direction of the Dead Hills, a place of old outlaws and their hideouts that she thought was long ago deserted.

[Kaushik · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved every single short story. Loved the novella even more! L'Amour takes you back to the American frontier chronicling the lives and aspirations of those who roamed those lands. While the themes are generally the masculine "Wild West" adventures, all his female characters are strong independent women fighting it out in a tough land. I've only ever seen the wild west in the movies, reading this book gave a whole new dimension to it. He's written over a 100 books all on the American frontier! Can't wait to read them all.

[leona · Rating 3 out of 5]

not exactly what i was expecting but still a good read. the man from the dead hills and monument rock were definitely the best stories of the bunch!

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of the last western short stories of L'Amour featuring the Cactus Kid, Utah Blaine, Browdie, and Kilkenny published after L'Amour's death by his son. Most do not have the romance of his novels which make them more realistic reads.

[Jason Brasier · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful page turner. Each story is exciting as the one before it. L'amour brings the old west to life on the page like no other. He really captures the true grit and heart of those times.

[Jeff P · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty good, a collection of seven short stories and a longer novella that were all westerns. These were published after the author's death and serve as the conclusion to the sagas of several of L'Amour's favorite characters such as Bowdrie and Kilkenny.

[Gabe Herrmann]

DNF, not a huge fan of the short stories they are good, but too short :)

[tatum! · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love louis lamour

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book consisting of mainly short stories. All typical Louis L'Amour western, cowboy story lines. Ladies, if you never read this author, do not be put off. Mr. L'Amour is such an excellent story writer that both men and women will find them interesting. There is just enough of a hint of romance for us women and enough tough guy cowboy shoot outs (but not too much)to keep the guys interested also.
The first half of the book are short stories. I am amazed that this author can develop so many quality stories. Each story is the same old west, cowboy/outlaw themes, but they are all different enough to hold your interest.
I do find I prefer full length books. He such a great writer and I was so interested in the stories and then they are over all too soon. The second half of the book is one story, Monument Rock. I enjoyed that the most simply because it was longer and characters and story can develop more.

[Van Reese · Rating 4 out of 5]

You pretty much know what you are getting with Louis L'Amour. This book is a collection of some short stories, and a short novel. It continues the story line for some of his characters, and brings those to a conclusion. Perhaps it is due to a short attention span, but I thought all of the stories were very good; maybe better than the usual. For L'Amour fans old and new, this is a must read.

[David Wilhoit · Rating 4 out of 5]

When my father died 11 years ago I found this book on his nightstand. It still had a Delta boarding ticket as his bookmark. I have never read a Louis L'amour book before. I read it to remember my father and enjoy this short stories. Could be my connection to my father but I really enjoyed this book.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of L'Amour's short stories, including stories about some of his major characters. The stories aren't that grand as tales but they reveal a lot about these characters that is interesting to L'Amour fans.

[Richard Mansel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collections contains the last stories L'Amour wrote and they are some of the best I have read. If you're a fan, you will love these stories.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Several short stories by L'Amour culminating in the authors short novel which is the last in the Kilkenny series. Classical L'Amour.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the work of L'Amour. This is another collection of his short westerns. Fun to read. Paints a colorful, thrilling picture of America's west and her people.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of short stories and a novella, 'Monument Rock'. All of the stories are great but the monument Rock story was such a page turner, I could not put it down.

[Bob Rice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great stuff. It was like watching westerns on television.

[Ben]

first louis l'amour stuff i read.. got me hooked

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book in a set of westerns for my mom and am reading them after her.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. By the time I got around to reading this one, I had forgotten that it was a collection of short stories. I was so enjoying the first story, the mystery, and the way that the main character, Utah Blaine, was figuring things out that I was looking forward to reading the rest of the book about him, when, to my dismay, that short story ended and the rest of the book didn't have him at all. But it didn't really matter, because I enjoyed those as well, although I think the first was my favorite. In it, Utah had become the new town marshal and had to solve the old murder cases. I liked the analytical ways that he figured them out. In most westerns, the emphasis is on emotion, excitement, or ability, not intellect, and so that was interesting to me.

In the second story, Kirby Brock was just a spoiled brat, although she did have better reason for acting as she did than I first realized.

The last story, for which the collection was named, "Monument Rock," seemed to move more slowly than the rest, but I liked it in that the good guy did not defend the defenseless woman because of romance. He already had a sweetheart elsewhere that he was faithful to. He just did it because she needed the help, and because he didn't trust the man calling himself her father on the ranch.

On the other hand, another reviewer said that there's enough romance in this book of westerns to even satisfy women who only like to read romances. I can see that, too.

Also in that story, the topic of posses getting the wrong people for lynching came up. I know that did happen in the west. Justice was quick and not always just. But it was interesting to me to see Louis L'Amour play around with that topic in story form.

In "Reviewing the Movies," Peter Fraser said, “The pleasure [of westerns and other adventure stories] stems from the implausibility of the story… We have lost hope for real solutions to problems like international terror and organized crime." Some of these stories did have their implausible moments. Some of the villains in a couple of the stories had Stormtrooper-like abilities in missing everything they shot at, but that wasn't in most of the stories, and I didn't think it detracted much from the stories. Besides which, shooting a moving target is hard.

Favorite quotes:

"I'd sure not want to leave a lady out here in the desert with nobody to fuss at but rattlers. It wouldn't be civilized!"

"Until you learn how to act like a gentleman, I haven't got a thing to say!" Although I'm all for people talking through their difficulties with each other, that doesn't mean that they have to listen to insults, because that's not really working towards reconciliation.

[Brett · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the only book from L'Amour that I've read and it was not an enjoyable experience for me. Goodreads informs me that it is part of a series, though I don't believe you need to have read any previous entries to understand what's going on here.

L'Amour's writing is creaky as hell and the stories have no character shading beyond the most cliché tropes of good and bad guys, virtuous women and scheming jezebels. It is painful. At three different points in these short stories we have a character see the sunlight reflect off the barrel of a gun and jump out of the way of a moving bullet.

I understand that these stories were some of the last published under L'Amour's name, and were done so posthumously. Perhaps they were not published originally because they weren't finished or not up to L'Amour's own standards - without having read his other stuff I cannot say. But this was a very harsh introduction to his writing and one I would not wish on others.

[wally · Rating 3 out of 5]

finished 29t marc 2025 good read three stars i liked it nothing less nothing more kindle library loaner have read more than five dozen from l'amour enjoyed them all. variety here of situations. the last monument rock is like another kilkenny story though the other is longer. long note at the end from son beau...i think...didn't note who signed off on it but other story afterwords are from him and anyway sounds like l'amour led an interesting life and maybe there's a biography interesting in that he lived during a time when he knew civil war veterans and the kind of people who populate his stories...long list of names they (l'amour's family) are looking for either in person or info about them. there's about twelve digital libraries i have access to and not much left to read unless i want to read on a browser (i don't) or listen to audibles (i don't) but the stories have been published long and there's always the secondary market.

[Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a collection of 7 western short stories written by the famous western genre author, Louis L’Amour. Most of these stories feature one of his more famous recurring characters, such as Utah Blaine, Shawn Talon, Chick Bowdrie and Lance Kilkenny. Since the stories are short, you get right to the point and that gets you right to the western action. It is brave good men versus nasty but lethal bad men. If you enjoy the western genre of literature, then you’d enjoy this collection of western stories.

[Bob Cantrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just some good stories

For me it is hard to not like Louis L'Amour. His stories are straightforward adventure tales. Now some people may say all his stories are just alike, but I say to that then you aren't paying attention to the story. Yes there are good guys and there are bad guys, but they are unique in how they present themselves in the stories. So for the real flavor of the Western genre look no further than Louis L'Amour.

[Oleta Blaylock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another collection of short stories. They are as follows:
A Man Name Utah
Battle at Burnt Camp
Ironwood Station
Here Ends the Trail
Last Day In Town
Strawhouse Trail
the Man From the Dead Hills
Monument Rock

This Collection contains the last stories about Kilkenny, Bowdrie, The Cactus Kid, Utah Baline and the last Talon stories

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another collection of Louis L'Amour's work, the last of his unpublished western stories. His westerns had been published for 57 years with this volume. There would be a few more collections to come after this one, that were originally in magazines. In this book, as always, Mr. L'Amour quickly pulls the reader in and keeps them there.

[Thomas C.Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really do enjoy reading the Kilkenny novels. They tend to show that even the good guy can sometimes be hurt or killed but that regardless, doing the right thing is what is required of us.

Louis L'amour is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.

[Glenn Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of the authors last eight short stories. Fast and easy read consistent with others from the same author. Predictable, yet compelling enough to hold the interest of fans of the American Western novels.

[Dennis Brock · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently read all of the Kilkenny books/short stories as I bought the Kindle bundle. I liked all the stories, but I think this was the weakest one. It was good, but not the best of the bunch. I'd give it a solid 3 stars.

[Jay Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published 10 years after his death, this book is filled with many short stories and one novelette. The stories give us additional stories of several of our favorite characters. The novelette is a conclusion ( or new beginning) for Kilkenny. You should enjoy if you are a fan.