Why is it that good hearted cowboys always seem to get dragged into trouble by dark hearted women?This is another novel where one of the Sackett boys goes out of his way to help a lady and ends up in a whole heap o' trouble - gunfights, suicidal desert crossings, saloon brawls, etc. This time Tell Sackett helps out a lady named Dorinda. She looks innocent enough at the beginning. Just a lady who needs some help getting to California. It quickly turns into a situation where Tell and this lady are high tailing it across the open desert being chased by some hired thugs. After almost dying of thirst Tell is shot at and almost killed. Through a chance encounter with some good natured bandits he manages to survive. But, of course, he feels there is some unfinished business with this Dorinda lady and the roughnecks that left him for dead in the desert. There was more to this story that needed explained to him.Well, it turns out this lady was connected with a former pirate (now that's a twist!)...who was thought to have a treasure chest full of coins buried along the coast somewhere. Along with this pirate, there were a mittful of petty criminals and gunfighters that seem to be written into the story just to get shot by Tell.Through a turn of events Tell ends up helping this former pirate. First he helps him find his gold and then helps rid his house of turncoats (Dorinda being one of them). He does this out of the goodness of his heart. In the process Tell has a run in with one of his kin, a distant relative of the Sackett clan from out east.In the final scene Tell is surrounded by a crowd of the pirate's former gang, all mean nasty characters who all have it in their heads to finish off Tell. That is when, as put very eloquently on the Jerry Springer show - 'blood is thicker', that distant relative of Tell rides in to save the day.I really like these Sackett books. In this one you really get to like Tell Sackett. There is not a mean, arrogant, egotistical bone in his body. He is all gentleman. Yet, that is what makes many of his lines sound a bit farcical. Most of his lines are deadly serious, especially when he comments on human nature or his indepth knowledge of the desert. If you have a strong humour streak, like me, there are many times when you read something Tell says and slip into sarcasm mode...for eg. He describes himself as, "big raw-boned mountain boy, rougher than a cob and standing six feet three inches in my socks, with hands and shoulders fit to wrassle mustang broncs or ornery steers, but no hand with womenfolks". So, serious, yet if viewed through the sarcasm spectrum it is hilarious...'wrassle...in his socks", come on, that is funny!http://bookwormsfeastofbooks.blogspot...
This is the ninth book of seventeen in his "Sackett" series. This particular book was particularly entertaining as the "Sackett's" have now transgresed from Great Britain to Ireland to Newfoundland to Jamaica to the Carolinas to Texas, New Mexico and now California. Somehow This book describes in detail many places in southern California that I have been to, but puts you there over 100 years ago. I don't feel politically correct or sufficiently intellectual if I review A Louis L'Amour book, but I find them relaxing, cleverly and simply structured and most important entertaining. So if these yarns are not your cup of tea, please forgive me and his 300 million other readers. A good book.
What do You think about Mojave Crossing (1985)?
A bad woman comes back...
—Anthony O'Brian
Much, much better than the last couple, though not quite as good as some. This is very much like what little I remember from my youth. Tell has all those Western virtues of integrity, grit, determination, and a willingness to stand up for what's his in the face of overwhelming opposition. We don't see so much of his dry wit from his last book, though, and I missed that.The story was way stronger in this one than in his other earlier works, as well. Way, way stronger. Not only is it well-paced, but it starts strong and never lets up. That and a unified through-line make this a gripping tale well-told.I didn't care much for Dorinda, but at least her character was pretty well forecast right from the start. Yeah, she's scheming and all, and twisty like a snake, but she wasn't really a threat—at least, not in any way that mattered (i.e. to Tell's integrity or standing as a man of honesty and courage). Packing Ange away (his girl from Sackett) was kind of cheap, though, so I have to call this the weakest show for romance (which is surprisingly strong in the rest of L'Amour's work).I'm not sure if all four of those stars are fully earned; I may simply be relieved that the downward dive of the last couple was aborted and this book benefited from the comparison. At any rate, I'm back on board with this whole Sackett experiment and am looking forward to the next book.
—Jacob Proffitt
To my knowledge, this is the first Louis L'Amour book I have read, though it is possible that I read some others of his vast œuvre when younger. I suspect that he is the kind of prolific author whose many short stories, novellas and full-length novels blend together. I would wager that he has a certain set of stock characters that he uses over and over again, albeit in different circumstances, in much the same spirit of the once-dominant Hollywood Western, where we knew who the good guys were and expected them to always win. But I like Westerns - of both the classic and more modern, or "revisionist," variety - so I enjoyed this book, even if it was, at times, too slightly plotted and a little bit silly."Mojave Crossing," which I picked up randomly at the library, is part of L'Amour's "The Sacketts" series. As far as I understand, these books profile different members of one sprawling transcontinental clan, using them as metaphorical stand-ins for the United States's gradual colonization of the frontier. This slim volume deals with the adventures of William Tell Sackett - known simply as Tell - as he faces outlaws, the desert and, most dangerous of all, one beautiful "witch woman." All in all, it's good, if trivial, fun.
—Christopher
