I don’t think I’ve ever read a Western before, except perhaps one or five targeted at juveniles that I’ve forgotten having read as a young child. I really liked the start of this Louis L’Amour Western, so I may pick up one or two more and see what I think. Unfortunately, I don’t think this particular book held up all the way through the end.
The premise for the plot is simple. William Tell Sackett is traveling west with his wife Ange to homestead. A veteran of the War Between the States as well as years of western living, Sackett is no stranger to roughing it. While scouting ahead of the wagon, someone shoots him from behind at a distance and Sackett falls down a cliff into a river, which carries him half a mile away. That probably saves his life from any follow-up, but also leaves him tired, battered and very prone to the elements. When he does make his way back to the wagon, he finds it has been burned and his wife is missing.
After making his way to the nearest town, Sackett vows revenge on the mostly unknown outfit that attacked him. The rest of the book is his quest to take out all 40 (according to the cover) of the men in the cattle crew.
Compared to my just complete Toff novel, this had one definite advantage: there’s a lot more emotion involved. I cared what happened to Ange (before Sackett finds out) and I cared whether Sackett would make it. And it mattered whether he would get his revenge or whether he died before he managed to do this.
But L’Amour had a few too many instances where he put Sackett in many to one odds where Sackett knew he didn’t have a chance. And all of them portrayed as equally dire, and yet somehow Sackett doesn’t die (at least not right away, I won’t give away the ending). There doesn’t seem to be any sense of building up anything. Sackett is surrounded. Sackett survives. Sackett is surrounded. Sackett survives.
So while I didn’t appreciate this particular novel’s last half, I was actually generally impressed overall. Simple uncomplicated plot. Good action. Characters I cared about. There’s not much of a better set up.
Title: The Sackett Brand
Author: Louis L’Amour
Series: The Sacketts; 7
Imprint / publisher: Bantam / Grosset & Dunlap
Format: Mass market paperback
Length: 120 p.
Publication date: June 1965
