Customer Reviews

Under the Sweetwater Rim

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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Has Louis L'Amour ever written a bad book? If so, I have never read one, and in fact this is one of his best. The setting is deep in Indian country - 200 miles west of Fort Laramie and right from the start the master of the western genre has your concentration as much as a wagon master going through hostile territory. In fact that's how the story starts with a grisly massacre of a wagon train party. The slaughter, however, was not the work of Indians but rather a vicious bunch of owlhoots who have made off with a missing wagon, a fortune in gold and the daughter of Major Devereaux. The wild card is Lt. Tenadore Brian,who is riding with the missing wagon against orders. In the hands of the master story teller those few ingredients are enough to weave a engrossing drama of the Old West that makes the reader keep going as relentlessly as Major Devereaux's career in the cavalry or with the determination of Lt.Brian to get the crooks - and the girl. For fans of L'Amour, and westerns in general, 'Under the Sweetwater Rim' is indeed sweet reading.

I always enjoy Louis L'Amour books but this was definitely one of his better books. Characters were well-defined and the story line was, as usual, very good. The book started with a wagon train slaughter which included the disappearance of Army gold and the wife and daughter of two Army personnel. Their story and the story of the father looking for his daughter is good, suspenseful and full of information about the area.

I would definitely recommend the book to anyone that enjoys L'Amour books and believe that even folks that don't tend to read much would enjoy this book.

In 1988 Louis L'Amour began blazing new trails in that undiscovered country, but he leaves behind a legacy of rugged tales set in the Old West. UNDER THE SWEETWATER RIM was first published in 1971 and it's predictably entertaining stuff, a lean and brisk read. L'Amour always was a voracious researcher and this time he places his western drama two hundred miles west of Fort Laramie, Wyoming, and as the story travels, he throws in plenty of details regarding the untamed landscape, the historical landmarks, the hardy people, and such. The novel opens with U.S. Army Major Devereaux and his cavalry patrol grimly surveying the site of an ambushed wagon train. It soon dawns on the soldiers that one wagon is mysteriously unaccounted for, this the ambulance wagon packing sixty thousand dollars of payroll in gold... and transporting the Major's lovely daughter, Mary Devereaux.

Major Devereaux is up against it. Indians on the warpath. Scouts on the take. Somewhere out there, forty violent desperadoes lurk, coveting the gold and the women and they're ramrodded by the murderous outlaw Reuben Kelsey. And Devereaux's patrol, comprising mostly of raw recruits, can expect no help from Fort Laramie. Then there's devilish cavalry officer, Lieutenant Tenadore Brian, who went AWOL and absconded with the missing ambulance wagon and the gold and Mary. Major Devereaux, a very concerned father, doesn't at all trust Brian. But Tenadore Brian may just be the only hope left.

There are several intriguing character dynamics which color the story, and I'm not referring to the romantic sub-plot, something which L'Amour doesn't tend to focus on, anyway, in his novels. Instead we get the probing interactions between Ten Brian and Reuben Kelsey, two capable men who a long time ago may have been friends. And then there's Major Devereaux's ongoing distaste for Brian, whom he feels is a ne'er-do-well drifter and not good enough for his daughter. It's an interesting dichotomy because, deep inside, the Major does realize that Brian is an exceptional soldier.

L'Amour, of course, is synonymous with hard-hitting action and, while most times he lends secondary importance to the romance between the cowboy and the girl, he opens up and waxes loquacious and philosophical with the romance of the Old West. It doesn't matter how rough-hewn and uneducated his main characters are, they all bear a love for the land and a respect for nature, and there's always a passage or two in L'Amour's novels in which the writer speaks his heart thru their mouths. And I did say that there's hard-hitting action here, right? It doesn't get better than when the odds are heavily arranged against a Louis L'Amour protagonist. Because that's when the hands slap leather, the lead blisters the air, and the knuckles bleed and get swoll. This is heaven in the eyes of a modern hombre nostalgic for the perilous American Frontier. Nowadays who do we got to look at? The Marlboro Man? Alan Jackson? Billy Ray Cyrus? C'mon, now...

In my opinion, Louis L'Amour is the best overall Western writer and this is one of his best novels.

All the elements are here for an excellent story that you won't be able to put down.

First, there is the hero - Tenadore Brian (what a name - I always wondered how Louis L'Amour created these names). He was an orphan at the age of 16 when his parents were killed in a Indian attack on their way to the California gold rush. From there, he travelled east from western Wyoming and joined the French Foreign Legion, the Papal police and fought in China. (He reminds me of Captain Myles Keough who died with Custer.) He has returned to his roots as a cavalry lieutenant stationed in Fort Laramie, Wyoming territory.

Then, there is the bad guy with his group of forty bad guys in tow. This is Reuben Kelsey, a Confederate raider of the Civil War who moves west in early 1864 (when the story takes place) with his band because the possibility for plunder is better.

Then, there is the story. As usual for Louis L'Amour books, this one "takes off like a bullet". Kelsey and his band attack a wagon train wiping it out, but Brian gets the ladies away and the army ambulance containing $60,000 in gold and Kelsey is after him. (Brian and Kelsey are past friends having travelled the west together in 1848 after the death of their parents in the Indian massacre.) Tracking Kelsey is a troop of the US Cavalry led by Major Deveraux whose daughter was with the army ambulance and who is interested in Tenadore Brian.

Finally, there is the description of the land. As I was following the travels of Tenadore Brian and the ladies and the small band of soldiers with him, I tracked them on a detailed map of southwestern Wyoming. The story takes place in and around the Wind River Mountains just west of Lander and the areas that Louis L'Amour describes are on the map - Sioux Pass, Sweatwater Pass, Atlantic Peak, Pogo Agie River (main, north, middle and little), etc. And, the descriptions of the countryside are worth the read.

But the story itself is what draws and keeps the reader interested with its twist and turns in plot and the fine character development. This is the THIRD time that I've read this book in the last 25 years, and again once I started it, I couldn't put it down.

I recommend this for all readers, except for young ones due to the violence. If you haven't been interested in westerns before, this one will draw you into this genre.

The story is great and worth buying.

The book was of the small-cramped-pages-with-cheap-binding variety, and it cost more than the price printed on the back cover.

In my opion this is one of his best works its a western, romance, and an just an all around good book for my kindle!

A shortish book, but clssic L'Amour style. A rugged and brave hero, a cunning and evil villan, terrific scenery, terrible obstacles, a tiny bit of romance, and of course a knock-down drag-out brawl all make this a wonderfully L'Amour read.

This was the first novel I read by Louis L'Amour of the four I bought. I cannot wait to get into his other writings. I read westerns by William Johnstone for years, but I have been converted to L'Amour. He is absolutely one of the best "Story Tellers". I especially like the fact he knows the period weapons, details of the area the story takes place, and even includes a map so you can visualize the area where the story takes place.

I love every book I have ever read of Louis L'amour and I have read just about everyone. most of his stories are of true places and it is interesting. I just wish he would have wrote more about Indian life.

i grew up with louis l'amour. he is one of the best writers for western that i have read. i would recommend this book along with all of the other books he has written.