SOURCE: "Lonesome Dove: The Prequel," in New York Times, September 10, 1995.

In the following review, Flanagan compares Dead Man's Walk to Lonesome Dove, praising McMurtry handling of atmosphere and theme in both novels.

In the opening paragraph of Larry McMurtry's Dead Man's Walk, a whore named Matilda Jane Roberts, known throughout south Texas as the Great Western, walks, "naked as the air," up from the muddy Rio Grande and into an encampment of Texas Rangers, holding a snapping turtle by the tail. As Mr. McMurtry credibly reports, "the sight of a naked, 200-pound whore carrying a full-grown snapping turtle" captures the complete attention of the troop.

But it must be merely the piquant conjunction of whore and turtle the attracts them. Save perhaps for a few youngsters who have lied about their ages, everyone in the troop has seen Matilda naked more times than he can count. Dead Man's...