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Title: Way below his talent
Review: Here is Cormac writing a deposit slip instead of a novel. It is fast moving, well-paced, bogging down here and there when he gets inside the sheriffs head, but nothing like his earlier great books. The absurd cattle-gun which even Jeffrey Dahmer would think was ridiculous, is clearly a set piece for violence for its own sake. Cormac saw the returns for his tepid Pretty Horses and went for the gold. He can't be blamed for his greed as a human being; but as a potential literary immortal, he has embarrassed himself and his craft. He should have written this pot-boiler under another name--it might have helped if the secret was kept. This book also sheds a bad light on his prior books where violence has often been cited as gratuitous. It seems those criticisms were correct and we simply have a great craftsman, not a great author, venting in endless repulsive fashion his inner demons like dirty laundry on a long line.
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