Customer Reviews

The Sacketts Vol. #5: Ride the River, Lonely on the Mountain, Jubal Sackett (Doubleday 1985)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Echo Sackett is one of the few women mentioned of the family. She is young, but she is a better shot than her brothers. Echo is also a strong female character who still aspires to be ladylike and not masculized.

But she still knows to "expect Higginses" when she finds she is due an inheritance and travels alone to retrieve it. Fortunately, being a woman is an advantage in a world of men who will underestimate her abilities.

I admire L'Amour for writing such a strong, young female character. Girls may become interested in reading westerns after their introduction to Echo Sackett.

Louis L'Amour writes like a girl, and when he's telling the story of 16-year-old Echo Sackett, that's an excellent thing to do. Echo leaves her mountain home in 1840 to claim an unexpected inheritance in the City of Philadelphia, and the story is principally about her efforts to outwit and outfight the criminals who want to make sure she doesn't get back to the mountains with what is rightfully hers.

Echo, every inch the lady, has spunk and smarts enough to go with the knife she calls her "Arkansas Toothpick." Being a Sackett, she also has a lively sense of her family history. As in most L'Amour books, the Sackett ethos -- help your kin at any cost -- is on full display here. I also enjoyed the book because it includes a free black man and a gallant city boy, not to mention serious villains. Their adventures, and reactions to them, are true to the time and place of which they're part.

It's also worth noting that the moral code that suffuses this book -- the idea that doing good deeds is like scattering bread on the water -- is L'Amour's version of what author Catherine Ryan Hyde would famously call "Pay it Forward" many years later.

In short, on the river or off of it, Echo Sackett is good company, and not just another pretty face. She reminds me of a family friend who ignored the unspoken navy blue dress code to interview for an elementary school teaching job wearing a lime-green skirt and matching Eisenhower jacket. You'll enjoy this story even if you haven't had the good fortune of knowing a young woman of such character.

I loved this book because, first of all it was a Sackett book and second it was about one of the few mentioned Sackett women. Echo is young , but not too young to realize when someone is trying to pull the wool over her eyes. Dorian Chantry is just the type of man she needs, not too controlling, and Oh so cute. I loved it so much that I read it in about three hours one night then about five times since. It's one of my favorite L'amour books. Read it!!

Another book in the great sackett series! Not only is this book great for the story of Echo SAckett and her traveling adventures, but it also provides a link between the books on the foundation of the Sackett family and their later exploits further west. A great read as are all of the sackett series,

This is my favorite Louis L'amour. Yes, I am female, but all the guys I know that have read it enjoyed it as much as I. I keep my own copy on my shelf and have read it several times. It's got a little bit of everything. Shooting, fighting, out-witting, and even just a little bit of romance. You will not be disappointed with this one.

I love this book for 4 reasons

1_Echo Sackett is one cool grrrl! She can take care of herself but she isn't a butch, she remains a lady.

2_A Chantry Sackett cross-over. YES!

3_Echo is one great fighter, yeah, but the guys aren't helpless Hannahs in drag. They are totally useful (Archie more than Dorian)

4_Dorian is one great love interest. He is just out of his element, that is, the ball rooms of Philly. But he is still good with fisticuffs.

Guys will like it, girls will like it, everyone is happy. Again, three cheers for Louis L'Amour

I had this book recommended to me by a friend from school and I enjoyed it thoroughly, I did not regret for a moment having borrowed it. I liked this book because in it Echo Sackett could actually do things for herself. She didn't run around screaming and crying for help like women usually do in westrens (in most of the ones I've read anyhow). This was one of those great books where the woman stands up for herself instead of hiding behind some man looking for protection

Ride the River is one of my favorite Sackett novels. I had read it before in print, and recently enjoyed the ebook version. this is a feel-good story of an amazing young woman.

Somewhere in the Tennessee hills in 1840, there is a young gal named Echo Sackett and she never wastes a bullet. When this fiesty girl aims, she hits what she is aiming for and can ride and hunt as well as any man. One day a traveling peddler happens to come across her family name in a newspaper and upon reading it, Echo must travel to Philledelphia because the newspaper states that there is an inheritance for the youngest living Sackett. Once arriving in Philledelphia, however, Echo discovers that a greedy lawyer never intended the article to reach Tennessee, let alone hand the rightful heir the money. A kindly, old lawyer becomes involved and after attaining about three grand and a ruby in a box, Echo undertakes a perilous journey home with thieves and murderers constantly shooting at her or stealing her bag.

Amid all the horse riding, stagecoach hopping, streamrolling, canoeing, and in between shooting off bad guys' ears, Echo developes a crush on the kindly lawyer's nephew, who has come along attempting to help her reach home safely. Echo shows us all that she is certainly capable of making it on her own, and with her sense of humor intact too.

The only thing I didn't like was the prose. Whereas I understand the use of uneducated prose when people are actually speaking, I found it unnecessary when Echo was simply narrating.

I would like to read more Louis L'Amour, but I am only interested in the ones with strong female characters in the lead. If anybody knows of any titles I may enjoy, please leave me a comment. Much Thanks!

This was my first ever Louis L'Amour book and I'm hooked. I was a little hesitent about it since I had never read a western before, but a coworker said I would love it. From the first page I was interested in the plot and had a hard time putting the book down. I went out and bought "Sacketts Land" and can't wait to read all the others in this series.