Review of "The Key-Lock Man," by Louis L’Amour

Review of

The Key-Lock Man, by Louis L’Amour ISBN 0553250981


Five out of five stars

Making law on the frontier not always done well


 Matt Keelock is a man in trouble through no fault of his own. He found his wife Kris under strange circumstances and he left her at camp to go into town for supplies. While there, he was forced into a gunfight where a man was killed, and it appeared that he shot him in the back. Even though the man was a known troublemaker with a hot temper, a group of local men set out to find Matt and hang him for murder.

 Matt is a man of the arid west, so he has no trouble dodging the men. However, he knows that he must get back to Kris, which means that he must become more visible. There is also the story of lost wagons of gold and how some of the men in the group were systematically murdered.  One of the men kept a journal that revealed incomplete information regarding the location.

 It is a game of cat-and-mouse between Matt and his pursuers, including one that has sworn deadly revenge because Kris refused to marry him. Matt proves to be a worthy opponent to all the forces aligned against him, although he does need help from Kris, and she proves to be a tough frontier woman.

 This is a great story about life in the west and how the law was a dubious thing, enforced by men not always right, but often sure of themselves.