The Sackett Brand - A Short Review

In this book, Tell Sackett is wronged in a terrible way. His new wife, Ange, is murdered, and the murderer tries to do away with Tell to keep the story from spreading. The murderer is a cattleman with some 3000 head of cattle – a very wealthy man, and he turns all forty of his hands out to track down and kill Tell. Of course, even after fearful wounds and deprivation, Tell survives and gets justice. He is a Sackett, after all. In fact, before it’s all over, all of the Sacketts I’ve read about to this point, and some I haven’t, show up to help save the day. The critical help he receives is linked to the name of this book – Parmalee Sackett bought out half of the stake in the cattle operation and fired the gunmen hired to kill Tell.

I loved the way the Sacketts all came together to help Tell out in this book. This is how friends and family ought to be when one is in need.

Mojave Crossing - A Short Review

This book is a shorter story about Tell Sackett traveling across the Mojave Desert with a mysterious woman and being tracked by her enemies. Tell eventually has to face down some California criminals, but he has help from a distant cousin, a Clinch Mountain Sackett by the name of Nolan. Nolan Sackett, a semi-criminal himself, at first seems like he might be Tell’s enemy, but they end up on the same side.

One thing I noticed here is that women tend to be very flat characters in L’Amour’s books, even when they are important to the story, as in this case. We are told early on that the lady in this book is something of a witch or temptress, and we are never given any more depth to her at all. This is unfortunate.

Treasure Mountain - A Short Review

With this novel, I think I might have gotten a little out of order for the series. In it, the Sackett brothers (Tell, Tyrel, and Orrin) decide to track down what happened to their father. He had left Tennessee when they were just boys to head West and make a better future for them, but he never returned. In the book, we learn that their father had discovered buried treasure along with several men from New Orleans. One of them had tried to keep it all for himself and killed the others. The Sackett brothers got their justice.

This was a good book. More than some of the others, I was really pulling for the Sacketts. I know I would really want justice for my father if he had been treated the same way as theirs! More and more, as I read these books, I want to go to the West and see the sights for myself. L’Amour claims to have used real locations exclusively, and I think I believe it. In many cases, the way he describes a mountain or creek makes me really think he has been there and seen it.

Beacons in the Night - A Short Review

This is a wartime memoire of Franklin Lindsay’s time in Yugoslavia. It begins with him parachuting into German-occupied Yugoslavia to a group of partisans. He heads north in Stajerska, a part of Slovenia today but part of the Greater Reich at that time. This means that he was likely one of the first, if not the very first, American intelligence officer to enter Hitler’s Reich. His initial mission was to provide aid to the partisans who would then use the weapons and explosives received to attack German supply lines running through the province. They experienced some success with this until the partisans began to horde the weapons and ammunition in anticipation of the end of the war, when they hoped to make a move to capture and then claim for Yugoslavia parts of Austria and Italy.

Lindsay was often placed in unique situations to know and evaluate important people in Yugoslavia, including Tito. This made his opinion of the situation there highly valuable to the Allies both during and after the war, though his superiors often failed to listen.

One aspect of the book that stuck out to me was the methodical way the communists in Yugoslavia (and this happened all over Eastern Europe after the war) excluded all enemies, real and potential, and created an entirely new government and way of life for the people there. It is frightening, really, how powerless the Western Powers were to prevent decades of abuse and political slavery from descending on the people of Yugoslavia.

I was also amazed at the rigors of life on the run, which Lindsay and his counterparts in the OSS, SOE, and partisans in the mountains of Stajerska often were. The Germans hounded their steps, and many did not make it out alive.