L'Amour has been described as a good storyteller, but a mediocre writer. When you start late and publish over one hundred books, it's difficult to maintain the quality required to get a first novel published. Hondo, published in 1953, was his first novel and proves that L'Amour could write well when he paid attention to his craft. Unusual for a Western, Hondo is a love story, reminiscent of The Virginian.
L'Amour loved of the West and it comes through to the reader in his stories.