The Lonely Men: A Novel

The Sacketts #12

by Louis L'Amour

Tell Sackett had been lured into the Apache's mountain stronghold by the icy beauty of his brother's wife. He didn't go alone. John J. Battles, Spanish Murphy and the half-breed Tampico rode beside him. Each was driven by his past to test his speed and cunning against an enemy who could smell a white man a mile away--and then shoot his eyes out at a dead gallop. It was a contest few men could enter--and fewer still could hope to win.

Genres: Westerns, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Adventure, Action, Audiobook, Historical

171 pages, Library Binding

First published May 1, 1969

About the author

Louis Dearborn L'Amour was an American novelist and short story writer. His books consisted primarily of Western novels, though he called his work "frontier stories". His most widely known Western fiction works include Last of the Breed, Hondo, Shalako, and the Sackett series. L'Amour also wrote historical fiction (The Walking Drum), science fiction (The Haunted Mesa), non-fiction (Frontier), and poetry and short-story collections. Many of his stories were made into films. His books remain popular and most have gone through multiple printings. At the time of his death, almost all of his 105 existing works (89 novels, 14 short-story collections, and two full-length works of nonfiction) were still in print, and he was "one of the world's most popular writers".

Reviews

[Jacob Proffitt]

I'm rating this one down and I'm man enough to admit that it's mostly pique. The story is good and I've always liked Tell Sackett. This is the third featuring him and L'Amour is a better storyteller with each new book. The only trouble is, the first book featuring Tell ended with him together with Ange. And I adore Ange. So in the previous Tell book, L'Amour had to pack her off back East for some mysterious reason and that sucked. In this one, L'Amour kills her off. Off-screen, in the pre-story, in a big dustup that he may have intended to get to sometime but apparently never has (because I'm reading in chronological order, remember***).

And that just sucks!

And yeah, I like Dorset, the new honey for Tell, but she's awful thin on the pages in this one, floating in and out of the story just enough to hint at her inner awesome. This is the problem with being a romantic reading the Sackett novels, I suppose...

Even worse, though, we get more of Owen's not-yet-ex wife, Laura. She's a cartoon villain from Tyrel's story and does herself no favors here. Her machinations drive much of the story, sending Tell into Apache territory on a goose-chase. I can't actually regret it because he rescues folks and meets Dorset, but still, she's a stone-cold bitch and seriously needs to go away (preferably permanently, though not necessarily fatally).

So yeah. Pique. It's still a good adventure story and Tell is awesome. Poor Ange. If L'Amour has similar treatment for Dorset later on, I may just give this up as a bad experiment...

***Edit: well crap! It turns out the series listing here on GoodReads isn't in chronological order. Gah. So looks like I need an emergency intervention for The Sackett Brand. This may sour me on L'Amour, altogether...

****Edited Edit: I changed the ordering here on GoodReads to reflect the much better chronology given at http://www.louislamour.com/sackett/in.... Future generations shouldn't so much thank me as erect statues and possibly instantiate a small cult...

[John]

Tell Sackett is not the sharpest card on the deck, but he is one tough hombre. Laura Sackett appears and tells him her son from Orrin has been taken by Apaches into the Sierra Madre. Tell after escaping from one Apache ambush decides to return to search for his nephew. A bit far fetched in where is Orrin and why is he not looking or why not send a telegram to confirm the story!

Tell heads off with three friends to find the mythical boy and there is lots of action and a new love interest for Tell, called Dorset who I hope to find out more in the next book with Tell. I enjoyed the Apache chase, gunfighting, lynching escape and the description of the Sierra Madres scenery.

Overall a good yarn but with a few plot holes.

[Laur]

Will Sackett, of the well known Sackett family, finds more than he bargained for in this adventure.

As the story starts out, he and a friend are caught and fighting for their lives in deadly Apache territory. His friend is severely wounded by the Apaches and IS going to die… the question is when? Mind you, NOT IF, when? Sure death is imminent, but will he lay on the ground helpless in the sweltering sun to suffer further brutality by Apache assault? His friend begs, insists, pleads for Sackett to shoot him in the head so he can die more quickly and end the terrible painful and suffering at the hands of the Apaches. As much as Will doesn’t want to shoot his friend, he doesn’t want him to suffer either. Mercifully, he shoots the man according to his final wishes and insistent pleas.

Now safely back to town and out of Apache territory, he soon meets a woman claiming to be his sister-in-law (being married to one of Will’s brothers). She tells him her very young son (so Will’s nephew) has been stolen by the Apaches and implores his help to get him back. (His brother is a lawyer, not a fighter and couldn’t do this besides getting himself surely killed.)

Being a “Sackett” that is fiercely loyal to their family and name (even if they haven’t seen or spoke to each other for years), Will is willing to venture into that extremely dangerous Apache land again to retrieve the boy… but the mission is viewed as suicide by almost everyone…except 2 men (who are also loners) who volunteer to go with him.

And there is where the true adventure and the real danger starts! Against impossible odds, there will be battles seen and unseen, battles known and unknown with complete surprises in the finale.

For fans of the western genre and Louis L’Amour, it’s an enjoyable and worthwhile read!

[*Stani*]

I am drawing towards the end at the line of Sackett saga books and I can tell you that this one was probably one of my least favorite.

It tells a story of Tell Sackett as he receives a letter from his brother’s wife that her son has been abducted by a vicious tribe of Apache Indians and that Tell is her only hope to find him and rescue him.

Now of course that is a lie and Tell’s brother’s wife wants nothing but a revenge against the Sacketts. She hates them with passion as they were responsible for her father’s demise.

No matter that her father was a ruthless and a cruel man, she still can’t forgive them for doing what was right.

So Tell rides into the Sierra Madres and sets on a dangerous rescue mission to find his nephew.

What he doesn’t know that there is no nephew at all and his brother’s wife set him what she hopes would be a suicide mission. And if the Indians won’t finish him off, she already hired a group of ruthless thugs to help her finish Tell Sackett one way or another.

*****

This story was more frustrating than anything else.

First the idea that Tell would believe his brother wouldn’t move heaven and earth to find his son is absolutely bonkers.

Second of all a simple telegraph to his brother to check if the story is true or not would make more sense instead of rushing into an Indian village and hope for the best.

The story didn’t make much sense from the get go and if, as a writer, you establish your characters as these people who posses common sense and act according to it, then the plot in this one is kind of mute from the get go. And that’s why it was such a frustrating read.

Anyway, if you are not reading in order and want to read every single Sackett novel, I’d skip this one for sure.

[Patrice]

My husband likes westerns so we picked up this Louis L`Amour audio book for a long car ride we were taking. It is part of the Sackett brothers` saga. This was well written and well read . I could picture the action in my mind as it unfolded. This story focuses on Willian Tell Sackett, Tell. He is lucky to be alive after an ambush and while recuperating at the nearset town is approached by a woman that says she is his sister-in-law. She asks Tell to go after her son, his nephew, after he was kidnapped by indians during a raid.

[Dennis]

Of all the Sacketts, Tell is my favorite. As with all of his books, Louis L'Amour grabs you from the first page, and you don't want to let go of the reading experience until you've finished the book.

[Paul Stout]

There's nothing like a Louis L'Amore book. My mouth is dry and dusty.

[Art the Turtle of Amazing Girth]

4.11

One of the better Sackett books so far

Not really sure why, it just resonated with me better

[Anne Patkau]

"Sacketts were a right stubborn folk. We just didn't have much give-up in us. We always kept plugging away, and that's what I was doing this time" p 196. "Now my pappy was always one for figuring things .. when in difficulty a body should always take time to contemplate. The only way folks got to where they are .. was by thinkin' things out. No man ever had the claws of a grizzly nor the speed of a deer -- what he had was a brain" p 201.

William Tell Sackett narrates fight few survive, more tragedy than humor in this story. Billy Higgins "lying out in the glare of the sun .. gut-shot and dying and the apaches were shooting flaming slivers of pitch into your hide" p 231 begs Tell for release. Tell frees "too good a fightin' man to kill" p 115, "scar on his cheekbone" p 126 is "Kahtenny, one of the most dangerous and elusive Apaches .. down and helpless" p 127.

From Yuma to Tucson, Tell rides with John J. Battles "deputy marshal for a time .. steadier with a gun than I should have been" p 205, Spanish Murphy "tall as me but twenty pounds lighter than my one-ninety .. alwas a-reading" p 116, and Tampico Rocca "mother was an Apache" p 117. The four "sweated and thirsted together, we had hungered and fought, and eaten trail dust together; so now we rode as brothers ride" p 123. They are not well distinguished from another, helps see them as a unit.

In the Quartz Rock Saloon were men "born with the bark on .. so rough they wore their clothes out from the inside first" p 131. Tell bluffs down Arch Hadden and "greaser" insult against Rocca.

Worst enemy is lying Laura Pitts Sackett "strikingly pretty young woman, blond and fragile .. pale, delicate flower, aloof, serene, untouchable ..husband .. Congressman Orrin .. separated" p 119. Angry divorceé invents son, kidnapped with Creed boys to Mexico, certain death, hires Hadden to bring "proof" p 176 Tell dead. Pals try to convince Tell "you've been lied to" p 171. Although "almost certain .. wild-goose chase .. Sacketts treated womenfolk gentle, even when they didn't deserve it" p 180.

Sonora "desert is the enemy of the careless .. signs which indicate where water .. flight of bees or birds, the tracks of small animals, the kind of plants" p 141. "I could hear a quail call . . . I hoped it was a real quail" p 210. Glimpsed "buzzards do not always wait for a man to die .. headin' into trouble" p 211.

Dorset Binny "cutest button of a girl you ever laid eyes on .. scarcely more than five feet tall and wore a buckskin .. quick and pert" p 163 comes for her sister. Tell goes back for Harry Brook, lost few years longer. Amid torture, Spanish adapts "old songs" p 165 to warn Tell away. Tell rides in, both ride out. With Battles "both almighty tired .. kept on, because neither of us was smart enough to quit" p 214.

Laura ensures troubles keep coming. A lynch mob invades a prison cell. Suprise twist combines enemy and savior. Haddens take Kahtenny's squaw to force Kahtenny to kill Tell.

Kahtenny "think somehow it is a trick" p 217, lets Tell rescue squaw. Tell's bullet to Billy's head is ammunition for Laura to misinterpret alongside decades ago Higgins-Sackett hill feud. Captain Lewiston arrests Tell for Billy's murder. Only Dorset and kids make it back. Battles, Rocca, Spanish - all die painfully. Laura, to blame, denies her lies.

In cell, "nothing there that would make a weapon except the frame of the cot, which was a half-inch pipe. So I just wrenched the cot clear .. unscrew two sections of it, one about seven feet long, the other .. three .. with an elbow" p 234 "jammed that pipe into the crowd beyond the bars" p 235 "a bad man to corner .. put four men in bed .. and injured six or seven more" p 236. Sheriff returns with Kahtenny's testimony, clears Tell of Billy's murder.

Laura ambushes Tell outside town. Kahtenny takes Hadden but she goes scot-free. "It came on me to sing, but my horse was carrying me along nicely, and I was not wishful for trouble. The End" p 241.

[Wilson V]

Lamour spun a nice yarn of William tell sacketts blinded by loyalty to a family member he has never met to go blindly to save his nephew who we the reader know doesn’t exist. but is such a badass he come back alive.
I enjoyed this one there was plenty apache action not the best one of the set but still a good one
3.5/5

[Nicole Blackstock]

I think my Grandpa read every one of his books, once if not twice. So I finally decided I should read one to get a glimpse of the intrigue.
Probably shouldn’t have started on the 12th book in the series, but would say there was enough background provided to jump in here and still have details to enjoy it

[Mike]

Another great book by Louis L'Amour!!

[Michael Wiggins]

The Lonely Men, by Louis L'Amour, is another tale in the Sackett Family saga. Tell Sackett is fooled into going on a rescue mission in Apache country, and a few other bad apples are sent after him for good measure. No need to tell anyone familiar with the indomitable Sackett family how that works out.

[Pop]

It’s a really good book. I couldn’t put it down. If you like Westerns, you can’t go wrong with this one. Louis L’Amour was a wonderful author. He died June 10, 1988.

[Bill]

Another good tale. Enjoyed this one a little more. Return of a bad guy.

[Lili]

tell: "i aint no hero"
tell: saves literally EVERYONE

[Jacque]

This was a good story, but many of the lines were repeated throughout the book unnecessarily.

[Clyde]

Another good Sacketts story from Louis L'Amour. In this one Tell Sackett has to deal with murderous enemies and leads a team of 'lonely men' deep into Apache country to retrieve young prisoners. Danger abounds and they have to face multiple do-or-die situations.
Good stuff. Solid 4 stars.

[Tim Deforest]

This was an enormously entertaining entry in the Sackett series, with Tell Sackett jumping from one Crowning Moment of Awesome to the next without ever seeming to pause for breath.

Tell meets his sister-in-law Laura, but doesn't know she's divorced from his brother and that she is a full-fledged Femme Fatale. Laura jumps on an opportunity to get a Sackett killed (vengence for Tell's brothers spoiling her father's evil plan in a previous book) by claiming that her son has been captured by the Apaches. She doesn't have a son, but that's something else Tell doesn't know.

Tell rides into Apache country to rescue his non-existant nephew. This is where we find out where the novel's title comes from. Three men join Tell on the mission. Each is a "lonely man"--someone without a permanent home. But all of them recognize kindred spirits in each other and--even though they don't yet know each other well yet--they know they can depend on each other.

The action that follows is some of L'Amour's best. Tell and his friends do end up rescuing children. That rescue, the ensuing chase, several other encounters with Apaches, a last-stand situation when they seem to be trapped and a plot twist that has Tell teaming up with some Apache to rescue an Apache woman each follows closely on the heals of one another. Perhaps the best moment is when Tell calmly rides into an Apache camp, where one of his friends is now being held prisoner. Tell has no real plan, but he won't desert a friend and simply figures he can make do with whatever situation develops.

Eventually, because of Laura's further machinations, Tell end up in a jail cell facing a lynch mob. This proves to be a big mistake for the mob.

A great book from start to finish.

[Josh Hitch]

Solid Sackett tale. This time it's Tell Sackett and he is hoodwinked by Orrin Sackett's ex wife in to going into Mexico, in the lands of the Apache, after a nephew that doesn't exist (though other youngsters were actually taken). On this journey a trio of other men go with him to help, all loners that just ended up traveling together. This book consists mostly of a running gun battle from deep into Mexico back to the border and L'Amour is always good at writing those.

Highly recommend, as a solo work it's a great western. As a part of the Sackett saga it has a slight problem in that we are to assume that the couple of times that we know Tell was with Orrin, he wasnt told of the divorce. Now L'Amour did explain that a bit by having Tell talk about how Sacketts didnt speak of trouble that was past and so on. Though it does seem far fetched that he would be hoodwinked so completely and that he hadnt heard anything about the troubles with the ex, when other people seem to know... But that's a small complaint that really doesnt hurt a well told story.

[James Biser]

This is a story of William Tell Sackett. In this story, he is employed by someone he believes is family to track down his nephew in the hands of the Apache. Tell goes far south in the mountains of the Sierra Madre in Mexico. By using his knowledge of Native American languages and every clever trick in his mind, he learns that there is no nephew among the Apaches. Laura (the ex-wife of Tell's brother) is the woman who sent him on the pointless expedition among the Apache. Before he can return home, Laura sends assassins to kill him. This book is excellent and horrible. It is, however, one of the best stories of the wiles of Tell Sackett.

[Jay Wright]

This is a Sackett book. Tell Sackett is hoodwinked by his brother's estranged wife into going after a fictitious nephew. He allegedly has been kidnapped by the Apaches and they have him in Mexico. Tell and three friends go into Mexico and free 4 children. The ensuing running fight to get back across the border is full of action. If you have followed Tell Sackett, he is suddenly a widower (where did this happen?).

[Scott Lyson]

Each of us in his own way wars against change. Even those who fancy themselves the most progressive will fight against other kinds of progress, for each of us is convinced that our way is the best way.

[Dan Donovan]

Horse opera at its' best

Tried and true formula book by a master of the genre, a true story teller. Never ready a really lousy book by Louis Lamour, just simple adventure tales full of larger than life heroes.

[Violet]

Love this series on the Sacketts; one of the families who moved from the east to the west in the 1800's. In this one, Tell Sackett has to deal not only with Apaches but also his ex sister-in-law who wants him dead. Great entertainment.

[James]

Not a bad read. Full of cliches and the main character often repeats himself, when he's taking breaks from talking about some virtuous aspect of his family. It's a tight story, but goes wonky at the end. Still, I enjoyed it most of the way through.

[James Edwards]

It’s a type of book you want to take your time with & enjoy every beautifully written sentence. I love the way he writes about the land & how to live with it, regardless of how brutal or desolate it might seem.

[Kayla]

I enjoyed reading this book. Another one about Tell Sackett; the poor guy never catches a break and trouble always finds him. Hopefully he'll get his happy ending soon.

[Brent]

My wife and I go to Chicago every year and somehow it became a tradition for me to read a L'Amour book on the train ride up there. It was a great trip and a great story.

[Caden Rowley]

The Lonely Men is a western style thriller written by Louis L’amour. The book starts out as Tell Sackett is pinned down by the Apaches in a land so bare that there isn’t anything around him except for barren desert. He escapes and moves on to a little town called Tucson where his Sister in law, Laura Sackett tells him that his nephew has been kidnapped by the Apaches and asks him to go into the heart of Apache territory to find him. Will he make it out alive and with his nephew or will he die all alone in the desolate desert?
The Lonely Men is a very good book. I think this book is valuable because it has a unique plot. It seems to me that there aren't as many western books as their are other genres so it makes this book a small treasure. The only slow part was when he was in Tucson waiting for his sister in law I thought that part was particularly slow. One part that I really liked about this book was the author's perspective about Native Americans. He didn’t portray them as people with feathers in their headbands who were primitive and inferior to the white settlers. He made them equals to the main characters. This book has a wonderful way of connecting to the reader. In the book some of Tell’s close friends die. We have all had a friend or family member pass away and this connected perfectly to the sadness that followed. This book left me satisfied with the ending and happy with the overall book.
The theme of this book is that through perseverance and hard work we can achieve what we set out to do. One example of this is when Tell has to ride multiple days and nights without sleep. Part of which was in the whipping rain and then in the scalding heat of the day to escape from the Apaches. It would have been much easier to have not gone at all or to have given up when things got tough, but he didn't. He didn’t back down and he achieved what he set out to do. This doesn't only apply to the book it also applies to real life. If you stick with it you will succeed.