Hondo is as fine a Western novel as L’Amour ever wrote. Because its title is synonymous with that of the 1953 Western film classic starring John Wayne, most readers of the novel probably see “the Duke” in their mind’s eye as the hero. In the novel, Hondo Lane is the quintessential good guy of the Old West—tall; taciturn; slow to anger but deadly when challenged; lightning fast with firearms, knives, or fists; instinctively pragmatic with women, children, and animals; and restlessly questing. At the same time, in the depths of his being, he is eager to settle down—though strictly on his own macho terms.

The arid Southwest dominates Hondo. Fighting with the Apaches, who call the harsh region home and who resist the encroachment of white “civilization,” begins and ends the story. The Apaches regard Hondo as their enemy, as he is a scout and dispatch rider for (real-life) General George Crook. Yet Hondo and Vittoro, the Apache chief, admire each other, as well-matched foes often do in L’Amour’s work. This fact, along with the cruel beauty of the desert and an assortment of soldiers (some brave, others bungling), creates the novel’s splendid tensions.

Escaping an Apache ambush, Hondo makes it with his fierce dog Sam to Angie Lowe’s rundown ranch, where he accepts her hospitality, doubts her when she loyally fibs that her worthless husband will soon return, does some heavy chores for her, and quickly impresses and likes her six-year-old son, Johnny. Hondo must leave because the Army is evacuating the white settlers in the region for their own good.

L’Amour, abruptly changing his narrative point of view, begins to humanize the Indians by presenting good Vittoro and evil Silva, his ambitious Apache subordinate. Both are on the warpath. Vittoro whimsically likes Angie, admires her son’s spunk, and annoys Silva (who wants Angie for a squaw) by permitting the little family to continue tending their ranch until the rains come. (Weather and seasonal changes are significant here, as they are elsewhere in L’Amour’s work.) Next, L’Amour skillfully sketches the Army post, complete with a motley gallery of soldiers, crisp military talk, cheap whiskey, a poker game, and handsome but no-good Ed Lowe, Angie’s neglectful husband. He is laying plans to follow Hondo into the desert to kill and rob him.

In the last half of Hondo, L’Amour complicates his plot with cinematic scene shifts and neatly managed coincidences. The upshot of the next episode is that Hondo saves Lowe from an Apache attack but then kills the depraved fool when he tries to steal Hondo’s horse. Hondo is himself captured, tortured, and then allowed to duel Silva. He wins the brilliantly orchestrated knife fight but then spares his vindictive adversary’s life. This dramatic generosity sets the stage for a tantalizingly delayed climax, rendered more wrenching by Hondo’s moral dilemma: Is it right for him to love a woman, however eager, whose husband, however worthless, he has killed?