This western by Louis L’Amour is another example of his story telling ability that gets a reader involved and continues to pull the reader a page at a time to the conclusion of the story. The tale begins with a young immigrant, Crispin Mayo leaving his home in Ireland because all avenues of making a living and improving himself had been cut off by the skill he had shown in knocking rivals out with his fists.

Crispin arrived in the United States after the Civil War.  Wanting to travel west to secure his fortune he would then return to his homeland. He could win over the home girls father, buy land and raise horses as a gentle man. This goal was going to be fraught with many roadblocks and challenges that would eventually change his direction. On his journey west he accepts a job to lay track for the railroad that is also heading west.

His ride is interrupted when he gets off the train to stretch his legs and gets a drink of cool water. Resting under a tree away from the noise and motion of the train he drops off to sleep and before he can awaken he is left at an empty telegraph shack in the middle of the open plaines. This is where his adventure begins in earnest. Everything that can make a story exciting begins to happen. Finding a dying man and the mystery of who would do such a thing? Shots in the night, a buffalo stampede, kidnapping, two fantastic horses, an attractive girl, murder on the wind and political involvement. All of this is wrapped up in a story that is sure to peak your interest and involve you in the desire for wishing the young man to succeed.

I recommend this book to western readers and anyone who is interested in a good western tale told with the gift of a writer who wants to share his brand of western folk tales with all readers.

The story begins with the main character Wat Bell, initially known as the Papago Kid, being where he was told to be, 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? I 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 the beginning book of the Sackett family and the father that challenged a new land. Barnabas Sackett was a man of land in England and he held it in high reverence. The love of wild lands and his spirit of not taking the back position to any man proved to be his problem. A young noble man felt slighted by this upstart young man and they crossed sword and became life long enemies.

He was shanghaied and was suppose to be killed at sea. Knowing the circumstances of his new position he plunged into the work and became too valuable to let the sea swallow him up. How did he become the captain of the ship he was shanghaied on? This was a small hill for a man with a sword and the backbone to survive.

Arriving at the new land he falls in love with its beauty and the freedom to do what ever he is capable of doing. With his limited trade goods he found a welcome market among the Indians and was able to increase his treasury. As he left the new land he felt it calling for him to come back and he would.

This is a great story that begins the trail of a family as they brand the land for themselves and their families. Louis L’Amour is the storyteller who weaves the various families and individuals into many intricate stories.

I would suggest that the Sackett’s be read in order if it is a first time read and you will feel the run of the stories and people that are involved as the author had intended.

This is a reread of my Louis L’Amour collection. The story is about the happenings of William Tell Sackett as he is searching for his place in the country and family. The story has the wonderful storytelling qualities of Louis L’Amour as he draws the reader through the life of Tell Sackett. The ups and downs of a grown man struggling with the need to have a family and resolve the issues that continue to pop up in his life similar but different to the problems we also encounter every day.

Tell is returning home bye way of a little used trail because he had shot a man who was trying to cheat him in cards. This let him discover a trail that crossed the one he was using through the wild country by an unusually marked trail. Being the curious adventurer that he is he takes the turn and the journey to his unknown destination begins.

I have always enjoyed the storytelling ability of Louis L’Amour as he winds his way through the mountains in search for the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. The life of Tell Sackett goes through the day-to-day events with surprising clarity and real life events that would have happened to any western character.

This is a story by Louis L’Amour in a collection of stories. Milt Cogar is a horse tamer and his string of broken horses is just too much temptation for Dan Spencer who is the leader of this rustler’s town. Mesquite has a few good men but they are under the belief that they are weak and unable to stand up to the bad element and its leader.

A girl admires his horses but is fearful of any contact because Dan Spencer has told everyone that she is her property and she can’t leave town or be sociable with anyone else. Milt Cogar offers to help her get away. She accepts the offer and every thing comes to a head.

This is a short read with particular points as in all westerns. I enjoyed this story and would recommend it to all western readers. I feel that Louis L’Amour is one of the best storytellers of his generation.

This book is one of Louis L’Amour’s stories about how a young man comes into manhood on his journey into the early west. This story shows the spirit of the pioneers who moved west to establish new towns and in the intervening time placing their imprint on the country around them.

This story is about a young man that put his stamp on a western community with out trying. They were strangers drawn together in a wagon train heading for the western ocean and the farming lands of Oregon. A strong woman Ruth Macken was the beginning building block of the settlement and when she stopped, she challenged all to do their best if they deceided to stay.  The settlement grew into a community, where neighbors trusted and depended upon each other.  The town grew and expressed the largeness of the surrounding country.  Bendigo Shafter accepted the challenge with out even knowing it.   He grew large as he accepted these new opportunities that surround him.

Many events happen to keep the reader turning the pages and investing their time and energy into experiencing this story, of a man growing to fill his destiny. I will always enjoy the stories of Louis L’Amour no matter how many times I reread them. I recommend this story to first time western readers as well as the hard-core longtime western readers.

The story by Louis L’Amour highlights the people on the land and they’re easy going ways and they’re laid back attitude. These traits were severely tested when unscrupulous men come from the East and loaned money, using ranches as collateral. The interest was high and the men on the land did not understand these tactics and lost their ranches.

The particular family we visit in this story is called Mulkerin. They are Irish and Mexican heritage. We have two sons and their mother, the Senora, who is the strength in the beginning of the tale, which pits the family against the moneylenders. Sean the sea faring son is returning home and is cast into a sea chase when he retrieves a woman who swam to his ship. Their closeness and mutual troubles bind these two young people together. Mariana de la Cruz begins to become a partner to walk with Sean not behind him. This is part of his life that he was searching for.

The story wanders into the supernatural with gold and windows into a parallel world where things are the same but different. There is an old man who leads the matriarch to the gold and helps solve some of her problem with the moneylenders. The family persists and survives these tough times and the son, Sean Mulkerin, confronts the evil players and wins out. His reward is more gold given to him by the people from the other side.

This is an interesting story and stimulates the mind. I wondering if we are missing things by not being silent more often and going into places that are demanding of silence. I recommend this book and would like any comment from anyone as to what they felt as they read the book.

By Louis L’Amour

This is a story about the movement west during a time when all was new and many men hungered for the power and wealth of the western land. The author begins the story with the mystery of a swamp and a young traveler going to the western rivers to ply his trade of building boats. Discovery of a dieing man in the swamp and then being joined by a peg-legged traveler that seemed to know more about him than would be expected. He holds his family name and secrets, from those he encounters.

A young girl, Miss Majoribanks, enters the picture and Talon is smitten by her beauty and freshness even though she seems to be completely oblivious of him except as a servant or employee. This encounter changes his mindset on what he is going to do in the immediate point in time. The events of the story produce a backdrop of intrigue and suspense to the travel that is under taken. The actions that need to be taken by Talon are directly reflected in his watchfulness of Miss Majoribanks.

The ravages of the Civil hit a family hard by wiping out their home in the East then the killing of the husband after they are in the West. This western story happened in several ways over and over again before and after the Civil War. The families of good people and bad flooded west and were bounced off of each other in the large country that was small because of few people. Everyone knew about the lives and events through out the countryside so your actions and history were hard to hide.

The story is about how hard work and a willingness to survive.  The desire to prosper can give both men and women the opportunity to make a life that will sustain in time and place. Mrs. M.O. Breydon, an eastern lady, raised on a Virginia plantation that is destroyed in the beginning of the war comes west to make a living. Her husband is shot and killed by another mover heading west that is afraid his past will be spoken about. The complications of the plot evolve around good verse shadowed evil making an interesting story line.

Running a stage stop is no easy thing for anyone let alone an eastern lady. She takes the bit in her mouth and uses her will and strength of character to make her stage stop on the Cherokee Trail the brightest and best stop on the line. She assembles a cast of real life people of the time with similar character traits and desires to be successful in her search for the best stage station. With all things in place the story moves in the direction of a successful finally for all parties.

This is a western story that should be read by both men and women. The author one of my favorites continues to brighten and expand my days. This is a must read.

A lone stranger comes toward the ranch slowly missing nothing as he closed in on the two who took up residence in the other mans cabin. Calling out if he could get a drink of water? Then he ask the question, is this the Chantry place? The whole known story spilled out from the father and son and from that point on the story moves in a page flipping frenzy.

An outlaw gang appears, a young woman is introduced; mystery and the possibility of treasure are all elements that will drive the reader to the end of the story. I enjoyed the reread of the story using new eyes to be able to give it a well-deserved review. The story has all of the necessary elements of a frontier western that can only be told by a true western writer. I would recommend the book as a must read for any western book lover.