Back in the 1990s, Random House produced a series of audio dramas based on the work of the great Western Writer Louis L’Amour and originally released on cassette.

In “A Gun for Kilkenny” a stranger shoots and kills a local badman in a bar and is taken to be the mysterious Marshall Kilkenny. The town is grateful for the stranger doing the killing and he milks the gratitude for all it’s worth because…what could go wrong?

The characters at first blush seem to fit the Western Archetypes (the saloon girl, the pacifist Quaker storekeeper, the saloon owner,) but they kept surprising me throughout the story. While we may have guessed the gist of the ending, how we get there is surprising. The story raises several great questions. What’s the difference between a “good” gunslinger and a bad man? What happens when you embrace a seemingly friendly killer?

There’s no big stars in the cast, but the performers turn in universally solid and believable performances. The soundscape is well-done and captures the Spirit of the Old West fine. The sound quality is good for something originally made for a cassette tape.

Overall, this was an engrossing performance that made me curious to hear more.

Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0

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