Callaghen

by Louis L'Amour

Callaghen’s business is soldiering. For twenty years he’d fought all over the world, from China to the deserts of California; now he’s a private in the U.S. Cavalry, poorly paid, his enlistment about to run out. He’s ready to move on . . . until he comes across a startling discovery: a treasure map belonging to a dead lieutenant who may not have been all that he seemed. The map points the way to an underground river of gold . . . or does it? To find out, Callaghen will have to fight the toughest war of his life: against a fierce Indian warrior, a vindictive commanding officer, and a ruthless gang of outlaws who’ll turn what may be a river of gold into a river of blood.

Genres: Westerns, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Adventure, Action, Thriller, Mystery

165 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

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

[Charles van Buren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Callaghen is an Irish soldier of fortune. An experienced desert fighter who had fought in the Sahara, Afghanistan and China. Now he fights with the U.S. Cavalry in the Mojave desert. His opponents are the climate, the lack of water, the Mohave Indians, outlaws and violent treasure hunters. And his own commander.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I've seen too much [war]. But I don't know what to believe. This is a young land, its people love freedom, and by and large they are tolerant; but we must not become tolerant of evil, simply because it exists." -- the title character, speaking to the object of his affections, on page 92

Standard sort of L'Amour western action/adventure tale - set in the arid Mojave Desert on the Nevada/California border in the post-Civil War aftermath - featuring the two-fisted, pistol-wielding and resolutely honorable Irish-American protagonist Mort Callaghen in the final days of his three-year hitch as a U.S. Army cavalry soldier and his sudden but deserved promotion to sergeant. (It's eventually revealed that he's previously lived the life as a soldier-of-fortune type in numerous countries - perhaps some of those experiences would've made for a more involving book.) As the author's books go this one was merely satisfactory, and I had to roll my eyes when - through the usual contrivances - both Callaghen's old adversary AND an unrequited love appear on the scene within pages of each other. It's almost as if the plot had a big enough hole to drive a stagecoach through . . . and, humorously enough, that's exactly how one of those characters arrives on scene.

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to a holiday off work yesterday, I was able to finish up Louis L'Amour's Callaghen. This is another one of the books I picked up during my last visit to the local library's used book store. I like to peruse the store they have there and hunt for my "collections." My Louis L'Amour collection is one of those; I don't think I've purchased a L'Amour book at full retail price since the first one back in the 1970's sometime, when I was a kid. Now I'm up to over 50 of his books, mostly read, but since he was such a prolific author, it's still pretty easy to find some of his books that I don't have yet.

Callaghen is one of those books that came along at just the right time for me. I was due to read a western anyhow, but I had a bit of a bad day on Tuesday (don't worry, nothing all that serious). Nevertheless, it was one of those instances where somebody close to me got the raw end of the deal through no fault of their own...and was punished for it. The world ain't black and white but your typical Louis L'Amour western novel usually is. I really liked being able to escape into this world where you know who the good guys and the bad guys are. And you can be pretty comfortably assured that the bad guys will get what's coming to them in the end. This one was no exception. The main character, Callaghen, is an army sergeant with years of experience in both US, just after the Civil War, as well as in foreign services. He has an intriguing past, having held the rank of Major before being busted down several times. Now he is eligible for discharge but doesn't really know what to do with his life. Soldiering is all he knows.

Fortunately, Callaghen has one last bit of work to do for the US Army, namely serving with a unit to protect the Government road to Vegas Springs and Las Vegas. Right through Indian country. Callaghen's vast experience with desert survival serves him and his companions well as they run into all sorts of Indian trouble, stage coach protection, and of course the political snakes within their own camp. We spend a lot of time seeing the countryside through Callaghen's eyes, an especially vivid portrait of the desert landscapes. L'Amour does a better job than anybody I've read on describing the thirst his characters encounter when they run short of water. Coupling that with the action of the gun battles as well as the intrigue that develops among the members of the Army unit makes for a fine story. I'd rate it a top 20% of all of L'Amour's works.

[Steve Hockensmith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Undeveloped plot, thin characters, some repetitive writing and confusing POV shifts. This is the third L'Amour novel I've read, and I found it to be a step down from the other two: Shalako and Crossfire Trail. Those books came much earlier in his career, so I have to wonder if L'Amour got sloppier as the years went on.

[Jeff Tankersley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sgt. Mort Callaghen is on a foot patrol with five other soldiers in the Mojave Desert, under the command of one Lt. Allison, when the group is attacked by Mojave Indians and sent on a desperate search for water after Allison is killed. Callaghen, whose time served in the military is up but hasn't yet received his official discharge papers, assumes command. When he gets his party back to Camp Cady, the commander there starts to inquire about Allison's true reasons for being in that remote area to begin with, and when we find out Allison was an imposter, we get subtle hints that there might be a quest for gold in the offing by some outlaws and sinister soldiers.

Callaghen's dealings with semi-obtuse high-born officers, his comrades in arms, his partnership with the Delaware scout, and his dealings with the suspicious Allison's former partners in a possible treasure hunt should have made this an interesting character-driven adventure/survival story, but the other characters are just one-note, the damsel-in-distress love interest isn't developed at all, and "Callaghen" (1972) also has some of L'Amour's lame later-career side-story informational anecdotes.

Verdict: An okay, short, easy western. As such, one of L'Amour's lesser classic westerns I've read.

Jeff's Rating: 2 / 5 (Okay)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 5 out of 5]

When his enlistment as a private in the U.S. cavalry ends, Callaghen wants to leave twenty years of soldiering all over the world behind. When he finds a map to hidden gold on a dead lieutenant, his real war will begin.

[hotsake (André Troesch) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ending was a bit abrupt but otherwise, this was a solid survival tale.

[Holli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this one. This is the second time I've read it and I still found it an engrossing read. It also works well for helping begin some knowledge about survival in a desert. I liked Callaghen and found him an interesting and honorable character. The one thing I didn't like about the book and had to knock a star off for was the somewhat open-ended ending. I don't know if Mr. L'Amour planned a sequel to this one or not, but it could really use one.

COYER: IT’S HOT! HOT! HOT! Read a book in a hot location or that could be labeled erotica. (takes place in the Mohave Desert; 2 points)
Book-Tube-a-Thon Challenge #1: Blue on the cover

[Hayley Shaver · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. It was about a man named Callaghen that gets himself into trouble with some Indians and treasure hunters. The Indians want what's inside the fort where he's stationed in the army, and the treasure hunters want a map he has. Will he survive both groups out in the middle of a desert where help is hard to come by? If you love westerns, read this.

[Jeff Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The bad guy never even gets hit! Interesting story, makes me like the desert. L'Amour really feels like the Irish were pretty discriminated against and full of great virtues. Kept my interest, but a little disappointing in the end.

[Thomas C.Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, I found it to be a little lacking in the characterization of side characters. However, I love the way that Louis L'Amour can take the main character and make him enlivened in almost every sense.

[Kyle Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 2nd L'Amour book; fantastically written, and brilliantly addictive!

[Allen Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author does well with the cavalry stories and it’s a break from the rustlers and land wars theme. Worth the read.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Callaghen (Louis L'Amour's Lost Treasures) by Louis L'Amour --Louis L'Amour is the master of the western! You can never have enough of his novels! I enjoyed this one immensely! Happy Reading!

[Christine Norvell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Callaghen features a veteran soldier in his thirties who has the right amount of grit and instinct to stay alive with his patrol in the Mojave Desert post-Civil War. Irish to the core, Callaghen is clear L’Amour hero material: “He was a tall man, with wide shoulders, a well-setup man who ordinarily moved easily and with some grace. Around the post he was something of a mystery.” He is a clear underdog, and you find yourself easily rooting for a cliched character: “He rode straight into the morning, his gun ready, and death rode with him, almost at his side.”

It’s almost too predictable but L’Amour has a way with action scenes blended with a heavy setting in this plot. It’s clear that he researched a great deal because the desert is a living character throughout the story, for “the desert is always waiting . . . the desert itself speaks, for the earth lives, and in the night’s stillness one can hear the earth growing, hear the dying and the borning and the rebirth of many things. A bit of sand trickles, a rock falls, a tree whispers of moans—these are the breathings of the earth.”

I was captivated by this place of life and death and felt that alone made the novel worthy reading. There’s more to L’Amour’s historical research, and the newest edition includes afterwords about his writing process for this very story.

[Stephanie Ricker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moderately entertaining but not one of L'Amour's best. A lot of L'Amour novels are fun to read once but aren't really worthy of rereading, and I would put this book in that category. Two and a half stars rounded up to three because I have a soft spot for these books even if they're not great literature.

[Mack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many good readers swear by L’Amour, and sometimes I hit what I consider to be a good spot in one of his stories, but, for me, they’re too wordy, philosophical, and descriptive. It’s the hard-boiled, punchy, action-packed mysteries and suspense - that kind - that I like to read.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

4+ stars. Intricate storyline. Exceptionally descriptive language -- L'Amour pictures the terrain as if he has walked it himself (he did). No one writes like he did.

[Jay Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Callaghen is in the cavalry serving in the Mojave Desert. L'Amour does his usual job with the landscape and you can feel the thirst. People don't realize how water is to maintaining a military presence. Callaghen is also more than he appears. He was born in Ireland and he has been a soldier for hire in Europe, Africa, Afghanistan to name a few. The action never stalls and only Callaghen is developed completely.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Action, adventure, and conflict in the Wild West.

Callaghen is an army sergeant, coming near to the end of his enlistment. He's on patrol when the green lieutenant makes a mistake, does something to retrieve it, and dies. The patrol mostly makes it, but they discover the lieutenant might not be who he claimed to be.

The story winds on. The reputed gold in the desert; Callaghen's past, including having been a soldier, even an officer, in many lands; an attack on a stage coach; an officer who dislikes the Irish and Callaghen in particular, especially given that the woman he's interested in is here, and knew Callaghen, and more add to the tale.

[Randy Tramp · Rating 5 out of 5]

No one knew the desert like Callaghen. A darn good soldier his peers would say. In a land that was ridden with Indians and robbers, life was dangerous. Yet, Callaghen knew how to survive in the harsh conditions.

Not only did Callaghen have to watch out for his enemies, Major Sykes is determined to destroy the Seargent. Politics even reigned in the Old West.

I enjoy traveling back to the time when the American landscape was untamed. Men like Callaghen were carved from that roughness. It's the reason I love L'Amours book so much.

[Samuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have every Louis L'Amour book in hardback and I have read them all at least once--and some of them I have read a dozen times or more. They sit in a nice shelf over by my front door, all lined up nicely in alphabetical order, and every so often I'll take one down and read it (again). Reading a Louis L'Amour novel is like taking a vacation for me.

The other day, I took down "Callaghen" and read it because the first couple paragraphs didn't seem familiar to me. Over the next couple days (the speed of my reading a book these days depends entirely on what else is going on in my life) I read "Callaghen" and it never did seem familiar. Thoughts of my mental processes diminishing aside, I was in hog heaven! A "new" Louis L'Amour novel!!

Mort Callaghen is a 30-something Irishman who has fought in armies all over the world--sometimes as an officer, sometimes as an enlisted man--and has nothing to show for it. He is currently in the U.S. Army, guarding the road through Arizona from Mohaves and waiting for his hitch to be up even though he doesn't know what he'll do with his retirement time. When his patrol is ambushed and the Lieutenant in charge killed, Callaghen starts to realize that there's something going on that has nothing to do with Indians and may be driven by gold.

This is a good, action-packed adventure novel that--like a lot of L'Amour novels--will have you dry and thirsty as the characters battle the desert.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Western. Cavalry action, post-Civil War, in California's Mojave desert. A veteran soldier awaits his discharge papers which are spitefully being withheld by his new commanding officer. Desert warfare against the Mojave Indians, guarding the stage carrying mail and his romantic interest, and battling outlaws who are convinced he has the secret to a river of gold beneath the desert sands. Author L'Amour has produced another action filled western novel, but his lack of editing and disregard for continuity have caught him up in the final, when characters (and a horse) left behind - reappear.

Callaghen's business is soldiering. For twenty years he'd fought all over the world, from China to the deserts of California; now he's a private in the U.S. Cavalry, his enlistment about to run out. He's ready to move on...until he comes across a startling discovery: a treasure map belonging to a dead lieutenant who may not have been all that he seemed. The map points the way to an underground river of gold...or does it? To find out, Callaghen will have to fight the toughest war of his life: against Mojave Indians, a vindictive commanding officer, and a ruthless gang of outlaws.

[Jamie Barringer (Ravenmount) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poor Sergeant Callaghen just can't win. At 34 he's got hardly any money to his name and is stuck in the army, stationed in the California desert to protect travelers from Indians, apparently before the Gold Rush really got started, and when he gets his discharge papers he has no idea what he'll do next. Rather than be allowed to mosey on into military retirement, he finds himself stuck in a mess that involves a racist direct supervisor who hates him, a bunch of thug gold prospectors, and Malinda, the young woman who is part of why the captain hates him so much.

I liked that the women in this book can shoot and are not easily daunted by deserts and rugged traveling conditions, and that while a few of the men are interested in the women, the women are not looking for partners, and there is no romance, even between Malinda and Sergeant Callaghen. This is just a solid western, predictable, but with a pretty good story and solid, readable writing and not too much tedious play-by-play fighting.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

As far as the story itself went, I pretty much enjoyed this. I only gave the book a try because my grandfather is continually harping on me to try a western.

My main issue had to do with the language. L'Amour seems to have a thing against using contractions, and some of his "accented" characters were really difficult to read. Also, the POV switched without any real warning, forcing me to go back and re-read as I tried to figure out whose eyes I was watching the story through.

I liked the main character, though, and I was impressed that there were two female characters who didn't whine, could shoot, and kept up with whatever was asked of them in that harsh environment. I was so glad to see a distinct lack of weak females in this book.

The ending left a bit to be desired, at least in terms of the relationship between Callaghen and Malinda, but the finals fights were pretty good :)

[Anne Patkau · Rating 2 out of 5]

** "Callaghen" is a western frontier soldier, days from release, with a treasure map and a girl, and competition for both. His Irish origin, and resulting persecution, are emphasized. Born in tolerant environment, I forget that such treatment can result in genocide, and doesn't seem to go away in this human world.

I like other (favorite author) Louis L'Amour stories better, perhaps because this hero is sidetracked rescuing soldiers and stagecoach, knocking off Indians and toughs, always thirsty, the desert beauty seems too murderous for his loyalty and he gives up the search resulting in a mishmash disjointed narrative.

[Chuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my fortieth Louis L'Amour novel that I have read and I am always trying to understand why I enjoy his books. Almost all have a pattern of good guy, bad guy, good looking woman, shootout and a great deal of Louis L'Amour values and description of the west. This book was no exception, just the name was changed from Hondo, or Lonigan, or Lando and so on. It is more than that however that has appeal. The books are a comfort and easy to read and simple in values and perfect in between a David McCollough biography and a James Michener epic. It seems that I only have about eighty more to read so I'll fit them in once a month for the next seven years.

[Larry Hostetler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set alternatively between western military forts and the Mojave desert, this is a typical L'Amour story. Plenty of action, plenty of suspense, predictable bad and good guys, and the woman with whom the hero rides away into the sunset.

Not as much insight into life and times in the Mojave or in the late 19th century military. Some insight into Indian cultures, but others of his books have even more.

Okay, not exceptional, not bad. Formulaic.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it, but it wasn't anything special. Certainly not the worst L'Amour I've read, but not the best, either.

[Oleta Blaylock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well here is another very good book that those who like westerns will probably love. It is like so many of Mr. L'Amour's books, action, a little romance and lots of wild country.

This is about the cavalry and the search for gold. It is a commentary of the prejudices of the time and the never ending battle between the modern world and the old world. There are soldiers, Indians and villains. There is lots of wild country, desert and mountains, forests and sand. The story is set in the area around Las Vegas, which is some of the harshest desert in the world. I love that L'Amour brings the desert to life. For few deserts are just sand and wind and heat. There are things that live in the desert and they thrive there. There are plants, animals and foliage. There are few deserts in this country that are devoid of life. Many things have adapted to the harsh climate and thrive there.

If you are looking for a good read and you like westerns then you will enjoy this book.