Wednesday 23 July 2008

Taggart

as by Louis L’Amour
Corgi reprint 1974

Taggart rides into Apache country in an attempt to lose a bounty hunter and posse. Stark, his wife and his sister are deep within Apache country living in a fairly well hidden canyon while collecting gold to finance their dreams. The Apache are hunting them all.

Few complications are thrown into the plot other than Stark’s wife wanting to leave him. So L’Amour offers a very straight forward story in this book.

Not having read that much of L’Amour’s work this one rates quite highly to me. The book starts slowly as L’Amour seems sidetracked into telling the reader what each rock is called, most of which is totally irrelevant to the story. Once Taggart and bounty hunter Shoyer are introduced the tale picks up well to an action packed escape from the Apache.

All in all a L’Amour book worth a read.



4 comments:

Chris said...

This is a fantastic idea for a blog; I'm glad I've found it. I would like to link back to your blog from mine--is that alright?

Also, you might enjoy looking at my blog. Just click on my name above, or go to www.lamourproject.com.

I'm looking forward to reading your blog more often. Keep up the reviews!

Steve M said...

Link away - and I'll add you to the links here.

Chris said...

Thanks! I just made a link for your blog on my site. I'm enjoying reading this one. The one below Taggart (I forget the title) will be on my reading list.

You should take a look at "The Outlaws of Mesquite," the short story collection I'm currently reading. Would love to see your thoughts on that, seeing as you have way more breadth in your experience with western fiction than I do. (:

Steve M said...

I've only read two or three L'Amour books - have a few more though - and must admit that I've enjoyed his short stories more than the full length novels. I do have a couple of short story collections to read but don't think I have Mesquite...I'll have to keep my eye out for it.