Mistakes Can Kill You

A Collection of Western Stories

De: Louis L'Amour

Narrado por: Lance Axt

Edge-of-your-seat thrillers from the greatest Western author ever.

There will never be another Western writer like Louis L’Amour. A legendary author and indisputably the greatest storyteller in his genre of all time, L’Amour captivated millions of readers and has sold well over three hundred million copies of his works, which includes nearly ninety novels and countless short stories.

Mistakes Can Kill You highlights an essential selection featuring nine of L’Amour’s earlier short stories, sometimes written under the pen name Jim Mayo, that exemplify the rugged morality of the best Western writing. In “Black Rock Coffin-Makers”, two men ready to kill over ownership of a ranch get more than they bargain for when a stranger is caught in the crossfire. And in “Four- Card Draw”, Allen Ring wins a ranch in a poker game, only to find out an unsolved murder was committed there years ago and law enforcement thinks Ring knows more about it than he’s letting on.

L’Amour made his characters come alive on the page, and his ability to capture the spirit and authenticity of the Wild West is unrivaled. Mistakes Can Kill You transports you to a world you’ll never want to leave, and proves that Louis L’Amour will always be the king of spinning a classic Western yarn.

©2013 Skyhorse Publishing (P)2013 Audible Inc.

Great short stories

This audio is a series of short stories and each one great in its own right. Narrative is good but the narration of the ladies part was a little on the corny side - being a guy the narrator did pretty good at winging it. Great stories and a worthwhile listen. Five by five on stories with a par four on ladies parts, overall I recommend stepping back into the sage brush and stewing a pot of coffee to settle in on a great adventure.

excellent

this is an outstanding louie lamour book. now i see mhy my garndfather loves these stories so much thank you

Good Westerns

A very good collection of stories by Louis l'Amour. I enjoyed each story and I'm a fan of the author.

You can’t go wrong with Louie L’Amour

Although his full books are better than his short stories, this is a good collection and well produced.

Louis L'Amour could write great stories

great short stories. Louis L'Amour is the only western writer I read. simply the best.

cool

It was awesome!
it was like wow I am going to be able to see if I am going to glacier.

There will never be another writer like L'Amour!

Black Rock Coffin-Makers – (Prior review posted - Dead Ringer: A Western Trio)
The Nester and The Paiute – (Prior review posted - The Strong Land: A Western Sextet)
Mistakes Can Kill You – Sam Redland was riding with a bad bunch, and Johnny had a surprise.
Four-Card Draw – Draw four cards and your luck runs out. Allen Ring proved different.
Law of the Desert Born – Shad Marone was a gunfighter, they had him boxed, and they wanted to kill him.
The Trail to Peach Meadow Canyon – (Prior review posted - Showdown Trail: A Western Duo)
Ride, You Tonto Raiders – (Prior review posted)
Trail to Pie Town – (Prior review posted)
Lit a Shuck for Texas – (Prior review posted - The Strong Land: A Western Sextet)

Saddle Up and Listen On

There was a hole-in-the-wall cafe on Main Street in the small Midwestern city I grew up in. It had a black revolving paperback rack filled with used Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonalds, Louis L'Amour and Zane Greys, and at the top, a set of paperbacks with the covers mysteriously removed. A kid could buy any book she wanted for 25 cents - except those untitled but well worn books at the top - or exchange like for like.

I must have worked my way through all of the hard boiled detective stories the summer I was 11. Once, I even managed to look at one of the upper row books briefly before a waitress saw what I had and snatched it from my hands. I never found out what I wasn't supposed to read. Judging the other books by their cover, I never opened one of the colorful Westerns. After all, I'd never worn a cowboy hat or ridden a horse.

That childhood prejudice lasted almost 40 years, until Audible had one of those Daily Deals on a 2014 collection of L'Amour works called "Mistakes Can Kill You: A Collection of Western Stories". I figured there must be a reason that L'Amour (1908 - 1988) was one of the most popular and most adapted writers, so I decided to listen. Audible makes trying out new genres a breeze. Returns are super easy if you, oh, say, accidentally end up with an exceptionally lame romance novel that described itself as a bookseller by day/sleuth by night who dunnit.

L'Amour's stories delighted me. I knew the places he was talking about. Thumb Butte? That's in the Prescott National Forest. The Kaibab Trail? I've hiked parts of that. One night when I fell asleep listening to "Mistakes Can Kill You," I dreamed I was in a colorful Spanish style Hacienda with painted tile floors and cool adobe walls, and woke up disappointed to be in my own modern Craftsman imitation.

L'Amour does use terms referring to Native Americans, Mexicans, and mixed race peoples that wouldn't be acceptable in modem writing. His descriptions and usage aren't derogatory, but the words are unexpected to a 21st Century reader/listener. There isn't really a single multidimensional female character in any of these stories, but that seems to be in keeping with the genre as a whole. L'Amour's characters are respectful to women in that cowboy kind of way. He's a master at dialogue accompanied by sparse but evocative descriptions of settings.

L'Amour was a pioneer in Audio Book performances, but "Mistakes Can Kill You" is a regular "single voice" narration of the stories, rather than the radio dramas he helped pioneer. I liked this listen, and I'll see if I can't find some of those productions. As L'Amour himself said, "I don't travel and tell stories, because that's not the way these days. But I write my books to be read aloud, and I think of myself in that oral tradition."

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Easy read

I got this book to take with me on a trip to Illinois. I downloaded it to the Audible app on my iPhone. This is the first time I had used the Audible iPhone app. I always download to my iPod. I found the app worked satisfactorily and was easy to use. I took with me the ear buds that came with the iPhone. I found this adequate except on the airplane, the engine noise made it very difficult to hear even on high volume; next time I will take my noise reducing headphone with me. I found listening to the short stories great while waiting in the airport and before bed.

I am a long time fan of L’Amour and have read almost all of his works. I think this was one of those collections of short stories taken from the western magazine stories published in the 1930s under the pseudonym of Jim Mayo. Some of these stories had the copyright lapse and are now in public domain. L’Amour was normally very careful about renewing his copyrights or rewriting stories that the copyright had lapsed. Therefore there are few of these stories in the public domain. There are nine short stories in this collection all typical western stories of their era. I found the short stories worked great on the trip as well as the iPhone app to listen with. I guess I am sort of catching up with modern times. Lance Axt does a good job narrating the book.

Mispronunciation

The reader was Ok, until he repeatedly mispronounced the most prominent landmark of the story. Mogollon is pronounced; (muggy on). The producer or someone should have told the reader.
Roan is not pronounced; (ro an) as in 2 syllables.
just (rown). These detract from the continuity of the story.