The Shadow Riders (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Soldiers on opposite sides in the Civil War, Dal and Mac Traven must join forces to defeat their longtime rivals, a ruthless band of killers whose reign of death and pillage extends south of the border. Reissue.

From the Publisher

Dal and Mac Traven fought on opposite sides of the Civil War but rode home together to start rebuilding the family ranch. Instead, they discovered the chilling aftermath of a guerrilla rampage of terror. It was said no force in Texas could stop these raiders one their bloody path to Mexico. But now the raiders had the Travens' sister and Dal's girlfriend, Kate Connery, held captive. Now they had the Travens on their trail and even though it would be just me Mac and Dal and their brother Jesse and Uncle Jack against thirty killers, the Travens would keep on coming. For as Kate Connery kept telling the other women hostages, "The Travens will never stop until we are free or they are dead."

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; 1st THUS edition (September 1, 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553231324
• ISBN-13: 978-0553231328
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #254,444 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fast paced Western action, April 3, 2001

By A Customer

This book is a classic good guy vs. bad guy western action book. If you like any of Louis L'Amour's other books, you will love The Shadow Riders. This book is a great example of the qualitites that you can find in most of his books. Most of the characters show a love of family, trust, friendship, a love for nature, and dedication. I would reccomend this book to anyone that wants to read a great book filled with action and suspense.

4.0 out of 5 stars A race against time, September 22, 2009

By	Chrijeff (Scranton, PA) - See all my reviews

Mac Traven grew up in Texas, served in the Rangers, and even purchased the 23,000-acre ranch on which his family now lives. But when the Civil War came, his beliefs, like Sam Houston's, bade him follow the Union, while his younger brother Dal chose the Confederacy. Now it's 1865 and he's on his way home, not sure if he'll be welcome but determined to at least assure himself that his kin came through alive. Passing through a dismal robbers' nest of a town in western Arkansas, he links up with a wounded Dal, who faces a lynching by some mustered-out Union soldiers eager to get hold of his horse and gear, and they journey on together. But before long they learn that a band of disaffected and unsurrendered Rebs led by Col. Henry T. Ashford (a man with whom Dal once rode) is working its way down through east Texas, stealing cattle, horses, and young women to sell into slavery in Mexico. Among the captives is Mac and Dal's little sister Gretchen, their brother Jesse (earmarked for labor in the mines), and Kate Carlisle, with whom Dal had something of an understanding before he left for the army. Fighting men are scarce in Texas, with so many young ones killed or wounded in the War and most of the survivors still on their way home. It's up to the two Travens, assisted by their ne'er-do-well uncle Happy Jack, to catch up with Ashford's band before he can get over the border or rendezvous with a ship that will take his prisoners to Mexico. Meanwhile, the courageous and resourceful Kate is doing her best to stall the advance or get herself some help in the form of a black-sheep uncle of her own, former ship's captain (and reputed pirate) Martin Connery, who now owns a prosperous ranch below Victoria and stands aloof from all human conflicts.

This fast-moving tale follows the Travens and Kate as the renegades move steadily south, introducing the reader by the way to the terrain and history of a part of Texas that many may not have been aware of. Although I tend to question whether Southerners--no matter how degraded--would ever have gotten into the woman-stealing business, I enjoyed the book itself; L'Amour is a master of pace and his prose is highly readable and at times almost bardic. Oddly, given that the book came before the TV-movie The Shadow Riders (which I also recommend), it's dedicated to the latter's cast and crew. This would be a good title with which to begin your acquaintance with one of the most successful and widest-read Western authors of the 20th century.