It is such a delight to discover Louis L'Amour's first novel. Though not the traditional Western that readers have come to love, it is a page-turning read of high adventure on the seas. I am so grateful to Bantum and Beau L'Amour for giving us this treasure.

It is hard to explain how much I loved this book and how much it meant to me. When I was a little girl, when other kids were having Dr. Seuss read to them, my dad was reading me The Sacketts. Later, when I could read myself, dad and I still read all the L’Amour books and discussed them. It is one of my fondest memories. When Mr. L’Amour died, it was like losing a family member. I am so thankful that Beau is continuing his dad’s work and is sharing it with all of us. This was an amazing book. Thank you Beau

Sailors on the S.S. Lichenfield filled with Naphtha. Story chapters told by different crewmen left the book dis-joined and so lacked flow. This did not really hold my interest but for fans of the sea and the time period 1939 will like it. "A copy of this book was provided by Random House via Netgalley with no requirements for a review. Comments here are my honest opinion."

I am not typically a fan of sea-faring tales, and frankly have never read L'Amour before (I had always associated him purely with Westerns, which are also not my typical fare), but was offered the ARC and intrigued at the prospect of a long-lost manuscript finished with the aid of the author's son. I was pleasantly surprised to find the story engaging and the characters and action jumping off the page. I shouldn't have been surprised - L'Amour is a world-renowned author, after all, and so it's no surprise that the man can write compellingly - but was. Some of that is due to the genre/topic, but the rest to the fact that it is the author's long-lost first novel, which one presumes he never published for a reason. I don't know what that reason was, but it's not immediately apparent to me - this was an interesting look at a world I knew nothing about, told from a variety of perspectives that offered a glimpse into the life of a sailor that I found informative and entertaining at the same time.

No Traveller Returns is a fabulous read. It is a different from what I’m used to by this author but still enjoyed it. I give it 5 stars.

No Traveller Returns in part of a collection of books started by Louis L'Amour and finished by his son Beau. It is a collection of stories of different sailors on a ship. I love that Beau provides a glossary in the front of the book of the different jobs available on the ship so that it is easier to understand the work that these men do. I was delightfully suprised to discover that instead of reading like a novel, each chapter was like a separate story told from different perspectives.

The writing format changes with the chapters to include diary, logs, narratives, and stories the men of No Traveller Returns will stay with the reader for quite some time. The writing itself is much like the L'Amour books I have familiar with. Straightforward without clutter or chaos, the simplistic words build characters you can imagine in real life.

The ship is the S.S. Lichenfield when times were really tough in 1939. Each story provides a glimpse into the man's heart and life. I like the way each chapter unfolds with getting to know how the man lives and thinks. It is incredible the insight that L'Amour (father and son in this case) show and the reconstruction of the novel is good. The ship is not repaired properly just before they sail, so right away the reader is aware that something will happen. The crew are busy working and sleeping, and with each chapter we feel drawn into their stories, their lives.

I have read plenty of Louis L'Amour novels mostly westerns and this is different in many ways. No Traveller Returns is about marine life and the men on the ship. It is rough in parts because the men are rough. There are plenty of vivid details for the reader to imagine the scenes. I really enjoyed the foreward and afterward...reading the words that Beau wrote about the book and about reconstructing was heartwarming. Beau writes just like he is in your living room having a conversation. I know they will mean the world to readers of Louis L'Amour.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine for an advanced reader copy of this novel to read. As always, my opinions are my own.

I have been a fan of Mr L’Amour forever. His books have brought joy and inspiration to my family for many years and continue to do so. This book is no exception and I thank his son, Beau for brining it to us. This being his first book is a very important addition to his published works and absolutely a book you should have in your collection. The writing style is different from what I would normally expect from Mr L’Amour and I enjoyed the ‘feel’ of the book, it took me to a totally different world. As always his character development was excellent and was the story line. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did and want to thank Beau L’Amout for continuing to bring us his fathers last treasures.

Louis L’Amour, perhaps the most prolific writer in history, left us some ninety novels, a book of poetry, a couple of hundred short stories, and countless research papers, memoirs, unfinished manuscripts, notes, and drafts reflecting the meticulous background he relied on to create his marvelous works. In “No Traveller Returns,” his son, Beau, completes an unpublished manuscript of his father’s about the sea.

Born in North Dakota in 1908, his father was a veterinarian who, trying to escape financial ruin, spent some eight years travelling to Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, and the Pacific Northwest. Hard work at cattle ranching, baling hay, mining, and lumbering filled L’Amour’s mind with characters that would later inhabit his writings.

Louis’ early days were filled with personal adventures that eventually evoked the western lore that made him famous. I have read detective stories, science fiction, sea stories, and boxing stories, all from the mind of this widely travelled and observer of the human kaleidoscope. His writing isn’t academic or complicated. Some have called it simplistic, pedestrian, and commercial. But his work never ceases to entertain. Reading his books and stories is easy and fascinating for the simple storytelling at which he excelled.

In “No Traveller Returns,” L’Amour follows the voyages of a tanker ship and its diverse crew. Through journals, memoirs, narratives and anecdotes, the colorful characters reveal the secrets of their lives and their motivation for following the sea. Beau L’Amour dug the manuscript from his father’s archives, edited it to reflect how he believed his father would have completed it, and has published it as a part of series that is intended to bring Louis’ unfinished works back to the public eye.

Personally I am delighted to get this chance to continue to admire L’Amour’s work. I have been a fan for years, personally met and had conversation with him a couple of times at his Caliente Creek cabin, and think that Beau does a wonderful job at keeping his memory alive.

This is the first book written by L’Amour that I’ve ever read. The description appealed to me because of the historical and life at sea aspects. In that respect, it delivered as promised. However, I did expect there would be more of a plot. Most of the book consists of vignettes of the crew and how they came to be on the ship. Those were interesting and reflected the mindset of the times, although the sheer number of coincidences to tie the crew members together was excessive. The journal entries of the Second Mate probably reflected the author’s views. I laughed at his wistful question, “Why can’t people be more absurd?” There were many philosophical musings, some of which are still valid today, and others that more reflect the times. The Second Engineer said, “Home was one thing when a man was far away; it was another when he had to live there.” Overall, I enjoyed the book, mostly for its historical descriptions.

This is a story that was written by Louis L'amour but never published. It was brought together by his son. In this story each chapter is spoken by a crewman on the S.S. Lichenfield, a ship carrying a material that is explosive. We are told their stories and there is a lot of action. I would recommend this book to all Loius L'Amour fans.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

No Traveller Returns is written in a very unique way. Each chapter is from one of the workers/sailors on the S.S. Lichenfield, a tanker ship containing naphtha, which is explosive and unstable. The characters were quite vivid, at times too lengthy in descriptions. These guys had fights, bloody faces, adventures at dry dock and before the Lichenfield, and we got to have a front row seat to that. Good story of life on the sea, and I recommend.