Customer Reviews

Sackett

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The title of this book is simply SACKETT, and it is the best of the series, even better than The Daybreakers and To the Far Blue Mountauns. Tell is my favorite of the Sackett brothers. He is the easiest to identify with, and I enjoyed reading this book, which introduces you to one of L'Amour's best characters. Sackett is a good book for anyone just starting to read L'Amour and is a good lead-in to the rest of the Sackett Series.

"... if the folks who believe in law, justice and a decent life for folks are to be shot down by those who believe in violence, nothing makes much sense. I believe in justice, I believe in being tolerating of other folks, but I pack a big pistol ... and will use it when needed." - Tell Sackett in SACKETT (while making a promo sound bite for the NRA)

"I'm just a man tries to do the right thing as well as he knows. Only, the way I figure, no man has the right to be ignorant. In a country like this, ignorance is a crime. If a man is going to vote, if he's going to take part in his country and it government, then it's up to him to understand." - Tell Sackett in SACKETT (while espousing, perhaps, English literacy as a prerequisite for voter registration)

Last Sunday, I found myself in an unusual (for me) and precarious situation. I was left with nothing to read while waiting for my wife to conclude her gym session. (I'm not an unmitigated lump; I'd just completed my 45-minute workout. I'm just not as driven.) For all I knew, I might be lingering for a seeming eternity if she'd gotten up a good head of steam on the treadmill. Luckily, the YMCA facility we frequent has a book exchange corner where members can donate used volumes. Pawing through the inordinately large number of bodice-ripper romance novels, I discovered a dilapidated copy of SACKETT, one in a series by Louis L'Amour about the fictional Sackett family of the American Old West.

Mind you, though my Mom discovered L'Amour several years ago and I, as a dutiful son, acquired for her all of this author's books I could find - dozens upon dozens, I've never read one of his sagebrush operas myself. The novelized Old West is rarely visited by me, though Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry was magnificent, especially the incomparable TV miniseries adaptation Lonesome Dove with Robert Duvall.

I read the first twenty pages of this 150-page paperback before my wife emerged sweaty but triumphant. Surprisingly, I found the book engaging enough to take home and finish before continuing with Cold: Adventures in the World's Frozen Places by Bill Streever.

Here, William Tell Sackett, the oldest of three Sackett sons, is in his third decade of a hard, wandering life. While his younger brothers got themselves some book learnin', he rode the Mississippi flatboats, prospected the Nevada Comstock, fought Johnny Reb with Grant, tussled with Injuns in the Dakotas, Minnesota and Texas, and drove doggies to Montana. The reader initially finds a homesick Tell as he's on his way to New Mexico to visit Ma and his siblings and as he stumbles across an isolated gold mine first excavated by long-dead Spanish conquistadors who'd presumably gotten themselves lost in the wilderness. And where there's gold, a heap of trouble is sure to follow.

SACKETT is, I gather, Western pulp fiction at its most formulaic. The plot contains the standard elements: the square-jawed, noble (and singing!) cowboy, the faithful horse, contemptible scoundrels, weather inclement enough to kill city dudes and the otherwise foolhardy, close-run escapes, desperate shootouts, spectacularly wild terrain, lost treasure re-discovered, and, since a cowpoke's horse can provide only so much companionship and can't cook up a mess of sourdough biscuits over the campfire, the girl of the hero's fevered dreams. (There are no marauding redskins. Perhaps they'd already been slaughtered or confined to a reservation to run a gambling hall.) LONESOME DOVE is just as predictable, of course, but SACKETT's much shorter length only accentuates the recipe for the creation of such in the genre while keeping plot subtleties to a minimum; it's a very fast read. No wonder Mom went through them so quickly and kept me on the rummage for more.

I ordinarily wouldn't give SACKETT more than three stars since I suspect there's not much to distinguish it one way or another from its numerous sister L'Amour Westerns on the bookshelf. But, since the book (and probably any one its siblings) is the absolutely perfect, mindless diversion should you find yourself in the slow line at the postal orifice or immovable on a freeway stopped dead by an overturned farm produce truck, I'll gift four.

The novel SACKETT is about a young man named Tell Sackett. He fled to Texas where he discovers a vein of gold. After the locals find out some of them begin to get greedy. They try to do a number of things to Tell but nothing can discourage him. In the end Tell gats the gold and gets the ranch he always wanted. This book was very good just because of the fact that he puts so much great detail into the novel everything seems so real. It was an excellent book.

This book stumbles around from one scene to the next, trying to find its stride. There are plenty of bad guys, and there's lots of gun action, but there's no sense that it's going anywhere. It just wanders from here to yonder. Which is a shame, because Tell Sackett is my favorite L'Amour character. I loved him in "Mojave Crossing," where he takes up with the spicy Dorinda. But in "Sackett," which came first, we meet his pathetic, whining, helpless girlfriend, Angie. I hope he doesn't marry her in a later book! He could do so much better!

Terrific story and I have to tell you the supplier got this order out to me so fast it was incredible. I love Louis's story's and this one was excellent as I visualized the Sam Elliot Sackett brother the whole way thru. again props to the seller , they really got this out to me quickly.

Tell Sackett is a "homely man." There is "no getting around it," as he admits. "Over-tall and mighty little meat, with a big-boned face like a wedge. There was an old scar on my cheekbone from a cutting scrape in New Orleans. My shoulders were heavy with muscle, but a mite stooped. In my wore-out army shirt and cow-country jeans I didn't come to much."

But Tell Sacket, like many L'Amour characters, has principles and heart and a willingness to get tough and fight when the time is right. "Sackett" starts out a bit reflective, almost self-analytical but picks up steam after Tell finds gold and a young woman in a remote cave. The conflicts finally ramp up. We know there will be gunfire and a few lessons along the way. As always, the Western scenery is strong and colorful. This one is set in southern Colorado and, if you've been there, L'Amour nails it. It turns out that it's okay to kill a man, in L'Amour's world of principles, as long as you "shot them honest." Decent L'Amour, not great.

Years ago I read many of Louis Lamour's Western books.INMO he was one of the best Western writers. His characters are fantastically described as well as the scenery and the entire western environment.

Sackett was one of his better books. The book is action packed and fast reading. I read it in 1/2 day. I'll just tell a little of the story to get your interest.

William Tell Sackett was a 6ft 4in, mountain man, ex union solder and trail cowboy. In this book we meet his brothers and his mom. The brothers have made a great life for themselves, their wives and taking good care of their mom. Tell believes he is just a cowboy, good with a rifle and six gun and living off the land but has not done anything great. Later he finds a rich gold mother lode and a sick feverish young woman named Ange near the gold mine. Her Grandpa had died taking her prospecting to find the mine.

Tell makes friends with an older man named Cap and together they plan a town near their goldmine claim. Other man try to steal the mine and take the town and Tell must fight with his guns.

Here is a man that only wanted peace and maybe a small ranch and to find a good woman. However he must fight again and again. Later in a saloon he has a gunfight with a big mean man named Bigalow and .... ( read for yourself)

Tell saves the life of a man with a broken leg in a savage, brutal winter storm in the mountains ( a man who wants to kill him and Angie).What a story! Tell what a man!

I wont ruin the great ending. This book is recommended for anyone loving the wild west and to start reading the Sackett series. Louise Lamour my best western author. Bought and read this book again for our family library. 5 stars.

This product was as advertised. It was in good condition, shipped and recieved as stated. I am so pleased with Amazon books that I have ordered twice since then. Thank you for making it so easy to purchase reading material of all types.

They had a different man telling the story who was not nearly as good as the usual guy. It made a big difference. The story just didn't seem as good.

My name is Troy Stap and I read the book Sackett by Louis Lamoure. The main setting of this book is about Tell Sackett and the gold he finds accidentally on an abandoned canyon trail that he stumbled across. And the other part of the setting was about the outlaws who chasten gold.
The main characters in this book are William Sackett and Tell Sackett. This book takes place in the summer and winter of a year in the 1800's. In this story the main conflict is Tell finds a pure vein of gold, and as he sets up a town gold thirsty outlaws move in and shoot up William Sackett wile Tell is mining gold at his claim. He comes back from the mountains and gets the news and then makes one final run back too his claim, butt the outlaws followed him this time. He gets snowed in but he manages to get out before the outlaws kill him and the outlaws freeze to death in the mountains.
My favorite part of the book was when Tell finally met Bigilow (the leader and brother of the outlaws) and had a drink with him and just as he walked away with no conflict, but then Bigilow drew and Tell drew his .44 and shot him dead.
As for me I thought this book was pretty good overall, but if I were to change anything I would have given Tell more respect to his name and given him a higher reputation as an experienced gun fighter. The kind of readers that would enjoy this book would be those who like adventure, courageous and suspenseful books.