How do you start a story in the first two pages to get a reader hooked and turning the next pages to find out what is going to happen and how the main character is going to survive and prosper. Louis L’Amour had that type of skill down pat.

The main character Tatton Chantry is placed in a position that most early seafaring men would have perished. The knowledge to survive is one thing but the will and strength of mind to survive is a completely different animal. Heading back to the spot where the skiff awaits the three of them to return to the main ship the Good Catherine. Tatton and his two companions are set upon and his friends are killed and he is left alone on the shore with the potential of Indians all around him.

He is able to survive and prosper using his brain and skills acquired during his growing years. He has fought wars, participated in duels, and continually gaining skills to survive and prosper. Pirates that are trying to take the treasure from the Spanish fortune hunters that confront him. The real treasure he discovers is different than gold or jewels but in the form of a beautiful Peruvian woman.

The story is action packed with many surprising twists and turns. L’Amour keeps the reader twisting and turning in his seat as he turns the pages and experiences the thrills felt by the characters. I strongly recommend this book as I do for all of Louis L’Amour’s writings. Read on and enjoy.

The story begins with the main character Wat Bell, initially known as the Papago Kid, being where he was told to be, at the Tin Cup ranch. Things were not too healthy there as he shows up he sees a man get shot dead. He tries to even out the odds with a few rifle shots. The murders just run off. Hugh Taylor told him that he was a wanted man and it was for murder. He was told to lay low at the Tin Cup ranch. The sheriff and his posse ride up with the sounds of shots still bouncing off the hills. The first question was why did you shot him? He was in the box again running from one murder that I didn’t commit right into a second one I didn’t do either.

This short story has all kinds of twists and turns with a little true love thrown in to keep the women folk happy. The story has all of the makings of a full western novel all it needed was more details and the complexities of the story to be highlighted and fleshed out.

I have enjoyed reading the short stories of Louis L’Amour and would recommend them to any reader.

This is a story in the Sackett family series giving the reader a brief initial looking into the early manhood of Kin Sackett the first-born son of Barnabas Sackett. Kin is the oldest and he and Yance the second son are in the west collecting furs and tending to a corn crop that Kin has planted. They receive a summons from a wounded Indian that Yances wife’s sister has been abducted and another young woman with her. The story is that Indians abducted them but that is soon proven to be false.

Diana Macklin is a young woman who knows her own mind and is much admired by  Carrie Penny.  Diana is a plant collector and she using them to make medicines.  She also talks to the Indians and takes their information on plant remedies and increases her ability to cure and heal with these plants and herbs. Being a loner and enamored by the night she is labeled a witch by the people in the settlement. If her father had not been such a scholar they would have probably driven her from their settlement.

Yance and Kin search out their trail and come within sight as the two girls and a slave runaway and hide in the woods as the kidnappers tramp around trying to find them. Things progress and the story has some twists and turns as Kin strikes out for the Indie’s to try and end the traffic in stolen white girls. In this adventure he has many ups and downs. Traps were sprung and murder was attempted but Kin survived and won the hand of Diana.

Heading back to home ground things continue to happen and the newly wed couple strive to write the wrongs and until the last chapter you do not see how they will survive.

This is a typically good book giving the reader more insight and background knowledge into the Sackett family and how they continue to think about the land that they have been born to. I recommend this book to the western readers who desire the characters that have strength of vision and convictions to make things happen.

It never ceases to amaze me how a storywriter of the caliber of Louis L’Amour was able to create stories of the west with so much realism and western lore to immediately get the reader locked into the story and drives the reader to the conclusion of it.

In this book the main character Milo Talon a relative of the Sacketts on his mothers side, had been riding the wild side and enjoying the country but always on the alert for the things that can get an unwatchful man killed. Joining a man’s fire and taking his food was to Milo a commitment only he was able to totally understand. Conflict comes quickly and sides are drawn as the story begins to unfold. Here we have a wealthy rancher in Milo Talon who takes a forty a month job as a cow wrangler for a man who he knows got his start off of the Talon range and stock. The question is he still a rustler or is he now being the person whose cattle are being rustled?

The story moves quickly with some hidden questions and people that he should know but he really can’t place the hidden face with a name. Three women are involved in the story but Milo ends up with only memories and dreams of things that could have been.

I recommend this story not for its expertly worded phrases or plot intricacies but just for the realism of a story told well.

This is another short story written by Louis L’Amour about the ways and customs of the west, were they reflected the chivalry exhibited in the writing of Sir Walter Scott. This story is a snapshot of a day or two in the life of Red Clanahan, one of those western characters that Louis L’Amour is able to create that reflects, some of the people of the time who lived and died in the west during the time the country was growing up.  Red had become a bad man in terms of words because events had placed him in situations where doing the right thing placed him on the wrong side of the law and the swiftness of his gun hand had allowed him to stay alive and inherit a reputation of being a bad man.

This is a story about a good bad man who comes to the rescue of a young woman. Elaine McClary who is given an inheritance, of a mining claim. She is expecting to see a friend who has this claim. Her father and she both believe the claim is very valuable while the truth is its value is in what the truly bad guys think it is worth.

The whole story revolves around a potential kidnapping and how the good bad man inserts himself into the situation to aid the troubled daughter. The day is saved and the truly bad men get their just deserves.

Mrs. Lowe tries to conceal the fact that her husband has left and not likely to return. Hondo moves on but is deeply attracted to Mrs. Lowe, played by Geraldine Page. He accidentally meets her husband and they instantly rub each other the wrong way. Mr. Lowe follows Hondo from the fort as he is going to take some supplies and try and convince Angie to come back to the fort. Hondo is about to get ambushed by Apaches and Mr. Lowe and his side kick run into the middle of it.  When everything is done and Hondo had saved his life he still tries to kill Hondo but ends up on the short end of a bullet.

The chase begins and Hondo is trapped and over powered. He is waiting his end with defiant courage when the tintype of Angie’s boy is revealed. Hondo doesn’t know that Vittorio has taken him as a son and a strong father is needed to help raise the boy. After a knife fight for honor he is taken to the Lowe’s ranch and dumped in front of Angie and she is ask if this is her man and she slowly but definitely answers yes.

This is a very good western and I would recommend all western fans to revisit this movie and soak up the western essence of John Wayne. The support of Ward Bond as Buffalo Baker is just one of the appearances he is renowned for in Wayne’s movies.

I have read only a few of the books. I’m not sure how or why we decided to read Jubal Sackett together but I’m glad we did. I found the story interesting and it led to much conversation. Here is part of our conversation.

Margot: Let’s start with a brief overview of Jubal Sackett.

Jay: These books are so complex, it’s impossible to to tell the story in just a few sentences.

Margot: Okay, here’s a challenge for you: Do a “Six-Sentence Review” the way Staci/Life In The Thumb does. (With no run-on sentences.)

Jay: Louis L’Amour wrote 17 books featuring the Sackett family. Jubal is the third son of Barnabas Sackett who was the first in his family to come to the new world (America). The story takes place somewhere around 1700. The family settled in South Caroline but Barnabas asked Jubal to go west to find new land for a future family settlement. This Jubal did, but his wanderlust took over and he decided to travel even further west. The trip takes him, on foot and canoe, from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Sangre de Cristo mountains of what is now southern Colorado.

Margot: Wow – very good! As Jubal traveled west he acquired a sidekick, Keokotah. I really liked this character, although he wasn’t featured a lot. Why do you think Louis L’Amour added him to the story?

Jay: Keokatah gave the author the ability to expand the story. The reader now can see this new world through the eyes of an older Indian in addition to Jubal. With Keokatuah the author could introduce the customs of the Indian world and bring his experiences into the story. Plus it gave the author a way to add dialogue into the story.

Jay: What did you think of all the action in the story? Was it believable?

Margot: For me there was too much fighting. I didn’t like the attitude that all unknown people were enemies determined to kill them.

Jay: That is the reality of the time period. The Indians were very territorial. Each tribe had their own general area but they were always on the move for greener pasture. These people were hunters. Very few tribes grew their own food or stayed in one place very long. So, they didn’t welcome new people. To them, new people meant they were going to take their food. If someone wasn’t in their tribe they were an enemy.

Jay: What did you think of Itchikomi?

Margot: I liked her character. She was definitely a classy woman and was believable as the Indian princess who was destined to play an important part in the lives of her people. Having a romance in the middle of all that “bloody action” helped me like the story more.

Margot: Overall, I thought Louis L’Amour told a good story. What do you think was his underlying theme?

Jay: Louis L’Amour does tell a good story. Some people criticise his writing but you can’t deny he is a good storyteller. I thought the theme was man’s drive and spirit to see the unknown. Also, man’s will to survive. Probably these themes are why men like these books better than women.

Margot: Are you implying that women . . . .

Okay, that’s enough of that conversation. We knew from the start that Jay would enjoy the book more than I would but what made it a better experience was reading it at the same time. I had the book on my ipod (read in a beautiful English accent by John Curliss). As I listened I would shout to him the number of the next chapter. That gave us a chance to stay together and talk about the story as we went along.

Thanks to Tami and Dave (Just One More Thing) for sponsoring this challenge of Reading Together.

This is a short story by Louis L’Amour in his collection titled The Outlaws of Mesquite. This story puts a town marshal against the town when he arrests the man that is pushing dream of lost gold and missing towns. The scam was simple but Lou the town marshal had already seen and heard all about “The Lost Village Mine” and he knew Luke Feist for what he was a con artist.

This is a very short story only fifteen pages but it has some thoughts that are always present in the stories of Louis L’Amour. His characters will not be deceived, they demand loyalty, they do their duty and they do the right thing no matter the consequences.

This story seemed to me to be just the thoughts of a large and more significant story in the making. I have always enjoyed his story telling and I envision this one to be a story that never got completely told. I recommend this story as a thought provoking episode in your quest to write a western story.

This Louis L’Amour short story out of the book The Outlaws of Mesquite is a tale of the tenacity of Johnny Garrett, which was also fueled by the desire to be close to Mary Jane Gavin. His first problem was that he was unable to keep his thoughts to himself and when he shared them with Mary Jane she repeated them to Smoke the foreman of the Bar X. As this outsider tried to become the best cowhand on the ranch he was given every dirty job available. Now every rookie has to learn all the jobs but Smoke wanted to get rid of the competition.

The first major test was in the winter and he was sent out to check the fence that would prevent a drift from going off the edge of the arroyo. All the cattle would end up dead and pilled in the bottom. He saved the day but he was unable to win the foreman over. His next assignment was being the range hand that was the hand would be posted to stay out on the range. He was clued into the fact that the cattle count was short and he began to search for the cattle in his area. Rustlers were suspected and he was zeroing in on them.

If I tell too much you wont want to read this story. I think it is worth the read and you will find out that a new girl is inserted into the story. The art of telling a great story is the ability of the author to have a ring of truth and a common theme. I would recommend this story as a good read even though it does not have the compelling draw some other stories have. I would like you to judge for yourself.

This is a short story from the pen of Louis L’Amour from his collection in The Outlaws of Mesquite. This story confronts a mans fear and the craziness of a wild horse. Was it really fear or common since? As a boy this top rider had seen this horse kill a perfectly good saddle horse that he had been riding by stomping him to death not by accident but on purpose.

Marty Mahan was an outstanding rodeo rider and his competition was Yannell Stoper who was only interested in wining and specifically beating Marty. Marty was also pressured to earn more money so he could buy the ranch that he had his eye on and his girl Peg was applying that pressure. Marriage was on the line. The Ghost Maker was here but he would not ride him because he knew what the horse could do.

This story sums up some of the traits of western men and how the good ones were able to overcome the opportunities that a man can encounter even today. How we face up to our demons that mark us it stamps our identity on the community around us. This was a very significant short story written I hope to bring mans spirit closer to what Louis L’Amour had of a vision where man should be.

I recommend this short story to those who believe that they lack resolve and need some reassurance that the path is there for the man that looks.