Tell Sackett is basically just on his way to exchange a whole lot of gold for some trade goods in California. Then he'll head back to Arizona and sell the trade goods. Some of the gold is his, and some of it belongs to friends and neighbors who invested in his idea.
Well, he finds himself agreeing to take a black-eyed "witch woman" across the desert to California with him because she appears to be on the run, and he can't find it in himself to refuse to help a woman in trouble. Only thing is, that woman IS trouble. And Tell finds himself in plenty of dire situations before he finishes his errand and heads on back to Arizona. Some of which involve a distant cousin of his, Nolan Sackett.
Also, there's a really fun, albeit small, twist at the very end that kinda makes me want to flip back through the book and reexamine a few conversations to find clues to it. And I LOVE that kind of thing.
Particularly Good Bits:
There are men who prefer to keep trouble from a woman, but it seems to me that is neither reasonable nor wise. I've always respected the thinking of women, and also their ability to face up to trouble when it comes, and it shouldn't be allowed to come on them unexpected. Many a man has sheltered his wife from his troubles, until suddenly he dies and she awakens to poverty as well as grief (p. 38).
It was not in me to believe myself fated to die at any given time. Deep within me I knew, having seen many men die, that no man is immune to death at any time at all (p. 115).
If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for quite a few cuss words, some western violence, and the brief mention of rape.
This is my 47th book read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.
One summer when I was an adolescent, a relative gave my Dad a big box of Louis L'Amour paperbacks. My Dad wasn't much of a reader, but I read them all that summer. Everything was grist to my mill in those days. I remember enjoying them but cannot now recall any titles, characters or plot lines beyond the books all being westerns.
ReplyDeleteDebra, what a wonderful summer! Reminds me of when a friend's family gave us a big box of old Reader's Digests from the 1950s and '60s and I read them cover-to-cover over like a year. Grist for the mill, as you say!
Delete"I've always respected the thinking of women, and also their ability to face up to trouble when it comes."
ReplyDeleteSmart boy, Tell Sackett. I like you.
Katie, right? He's no dummy.
DeleteI love how much respect L'Amour's characters have for the good sense and reliability and importance of women.