The Sackett Brand - Louis L'Amour (Bantam - June 1965)

Series: Sacketts (Book 12)

THERE'S A SACKETT IN TROUBLE

Forty gunslingers from the Lazy A have got Tell Sackett cornered back under the Mogollon Rim. They're fixing to hang him if they can get him alive, fill him extra full of lead if they can't. But the Sacketts, they don't cotton to that kind of treatment. Hunt one Sackett and you hunt 'em all. They're coming in from all over--mountain Sacketts, flatland Sacketts, politicians, outlaws, cattlemen, bankers, tinkers. They can all fight, and their biggest worry is WE SHORE HOPE TELL DON'T KILL ALL FORTY AFORE WE GET THERE!

This is a story about the power of family.  Tell Sackett and his wife Ange were headed into Arizona to settle a ranch of their own.  While scouting ahead he was shot.  By the time he was able to make his way back to where he had left her, she and all their possessions had disappeared.  He soon discovered that he had forty men looking for him to kill him.  His motivation now is to stay alive long enough to find the man who killed Ange.  As is usual in a L'Amour book, the power of his descriptions is phenomenal.  As I read I could feel the heat and the cold and sense the anger just rolling off Tell.  I loved the details of his tracking and movement.  His thoughts of Ange and how much they had loved each other were heartbreaking.  He thought he was all alone in his fight, but was determined to make it count.  He didn't know that word of his trouble had spread and that Sacketts from all over were coming to help.  In speaking to one of the hunters Nolan Sackett said this:  "Mister, you're huntin' a Sackett, an' the one you're huntin' would, man to man, make you eat that six-gun you're packin'. Howsoever, when you hunt one Sackett, you just naturally make the rest of us feel the urge.  Now, I don't know if I'll make it up there in time to he'p, so I figured to trim the edges off, like.  You look maverick to me, so I figured to put the Sackett brand on you." 

The last paragraph said it all:  "We stopped in Globe and the lot of us lined up in O'Leary's place, all of us together, more Sacketts than I'd ever seen before...or anybody else, I guess.  Me, standing there amongst them, I looked around and I knew I was not alone, and I'd never be alone again."

Sackett - Louis L'Amour (Bantam - May 1961)

Series: Sacketts (Book 9)

"I'M TELL SACKETT!"

"Oldest brother to Orrin Sackett, the lawmaker, and Tye Sackett, the Mora gunfighter . . . I had to kill a man in Texas so I've drifted. Came upon a vein of pure gold in high, lonesome country. All I wanted was enough to buy me a ranch . . . but gold has ways of its own with men!"

William Tell Sackett had followed a different path from his younger brothers, but his name, like theirs, was spoken with respect and just a little fear. Where Orrin had brought law and order from New Mexico to the plains of Montana, backed up by the gunfighting talents of his brother Tye, Tell Sackett's destiny drew him to Texas and further after he had to kill a man. There, in the high, lonesome country, he came upon a vein of pure gold. All he'd wanted was enough to buy a ranch, but he soon learned that gold had ways of its own with men. 

Another excellent story by L'Amour about the type of men who settled the west.  After the Civil War he drifted west working anything from cattle drives to riverboats.  After killing a man who tried to kill him he decided it was time to try to improve his life.  On his way down to New Mexico to visit his brothers (see Daybreakers) he stumbles on a rich vein of gold.  After talking to his brothers he and Cap Rountree get the supplies together to mine that gold.  With gold being one of those things that tends to draw unwanted attention they ran into trouble almost from the beginning.  Also in the valley where he found the gold he found a young woman whose grandfather had found the gold first.  He rescued her and faced the trouble that found them.  Tell is another one of L'Amour's quiet heroes.  He doesn't go looking for trouble but he doesn't run from it either.  He has a strict code of honor and believes in the difference between right and wrong.  One of the things he was determined to do was to improve his reading which he did by reading a book about law which gave him a lot to think about.  I also liked the way that he tried to resolve issues without shooting if it was possible.  Besides the intense drama of some of the events, there were also some funny times.  I really enjoyed the shaving scene at the beginning and also his dealing with the interlopers of the town near the end.

The Daybreakers - Louis L'Amour (Bantam - Feb 1960)

Series: Sacketts (Book 6)

I'M TYREL SACKETT AND I WAS BORN TO TROUBLE...

I killed a man in Tennessee, fair and square, but me and my brother Orrin hit the trail west. Those were the years when decent men and women went in fear of Indians, rustlers and killers, but we made the West a land where folks could raise their young 'uns. Orrin brought law and order from Santa Fe to Montana, and I backed him all the way. Because, till the day I hung it up, I was the fastest gun alive!

It has been a long time since I read any of the Sackett books but I have to say that I still enjoyed it as much as I ever did.  I started reading L'Amour because he was a favorite of my dad and grandfather, but I kept reading them because they are such good stories.  L'Amour has a gift of being able to describe a place or event so that you feel that you are there.  This book is told in the first person by Tyrel Sackett, who at the beginning is eighteen years old.  When he killed a man who was trying to kill his brother he decided it was time to go west and start a new life.  His brother caught up with him and they got a job as cowboys.  From there they decided to earn the money to start a ranch of their own that they can then bring their mom and younger brothers to.  They have to deal with many things they had never experienced before, but they were quick learners and did quite well.  Both realized that they needed an education. At that time many people were self taught, so once they learned to read they read everything they could get their hands on.  I loved the way that L'Amour showed the reverence people had for books and how important reading became to them.  I also loved the interactions among the various people and how it showed a terrific picture of the way life was in the old west.  I really enjoyed Tyrel's shyness at first when he was getting to know Drusilla and how he was eventually able to overcome it.  There was also plenty of action as he had to contend with rustlers, Indians, various outlaws and land grabbers.  I really liked Tyrel's way of keeping his view of right and wrong and the way that he tried to come out on the good side.  One of my favorite lines in the book is when Tyrel is talking about dealing with the folks who are causing trouble in town:  "People have a greater tolerance for evil than for violence. If crooked gambling, thieving and robbing are covered over folks will tolerate it longer than outright violence, even when the violence may be cleansing."