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The Sacketts #16
Ride The Dark Trail
In Ride the Dark Trail, Louis L’Amour tells the story of Logan Sackett, a cynical drifter who changes his ways to help a widow keep her land.
Logan Sackett was wild and rootless, riding west in search of easy living. Then he met Emily Talon, a fiery old widow who was even wilder than he was. Tall and lean, Em was determined to defend herself against the jealous locals who were trying to take her home. Logan didn’t want to get involved—until he found out that Em had been born a Sackett. Em was bucking overwhelming odds, but Logan wouldn’t let her stand alone. For even the rebellious drifter knew that part of being a Sackett was backing up your family when they needed you.
Logan Sackett was wild and rootless, riding west in search of easy living. Then he met Emily Talon, a fiery old widow who was even wilder than he was. Tall and lean, Em was determined to defend herself against the jealous locals who were trying to take her home. Logan didn’t want to get involved—until he found out that Em had been born a Sackett. Em was bucking overwhelming odds, but Logan wouldn’t let her stand alone. For even the rebellious drifter knew that part of being a Sackett was backing up your family when they needed you.
168 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 1, 1972
367 people are currently reading
1494 people want to read
About the author
Louis L'Amour
995 books3,468 followersLouis 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".
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 176 reviews
August 1, 2024
Needed a break from the Raj Quartet so reread the Logan Sackett story and is never give up spirit
After finishing’The Golden Notebook’ by Doris Lessing I needed to read something light but with lots of action. Logan Sackett in his battle to save his friend Milo Talon’s mother’s ranch was all that. I literally lost count the number of times Logan was shot. But he took a licking and kept on ticking.
The landscape descriptions were wonderful and the battles were excellent. A bit disjointed in places in Brannenburg an egotistical cattle Baron disappearing from the story after Logan bests him in a fist fight. The love interest also disappeared after Logan kills the bounty hunter.
Overall though it was a great story with the disabled Jack Flanner getting his just desserts.
After finishing’The Golden Notebook’ by Doris Lessing I needed to read something light but with lots of action. Logan Sackett in his battle to save his friend Milo Talon’s mother’s ranch was all that. I literally lost count the number of times Logan was shot. But he took a licking and kept on ticking.
The landscape descriptions were wonderful and the battles were excellent. A bit disjointed in places in Brannenburg an egotistical cattle Baron disappearing from the story after Logan bests him in a fist fight. The love interest also disappeared after Logan kills the bounty hunter.
Overall though it was a great story with the disabled Jack Flanner getting his just desserts.
February 24, 2014
I am probably more surprised than anyone that I have fallen in love with westerns. First it was Virgil and Everett and now it is Logan Sackett. I mean aren't westerns supposed to be for old dudes? But now that I think about it...what ISN'T a girl to love about rugged, honorable, hot men? I mean...why do old dudes like westerns? I think In the case of Virgil, Everett and Logan, well, I can't think of any girl who wouldn't fall in love with these guys! I met Logan Sackett in my first Louis L'Amour book ever, Ride the Dark Trail. Man. It was good, good, good. I caught the first 1/2 hour of it on Book Radio, and had to get the CD. Logan is a drifter from Tennessee who ends up in Colorado where Em Talon, a woman in her 60s, is trying to defend her home and land from a dirtbag in town and his boys who want to take it from her. Talon is a tough as nails and it turns out, she is a Sackett from Tennessee, too. Logan starts to ride for Em and help her defend her ranch. I loved this book! I loved strong Logan. And I loved Em, too because she is one strong woman! I especially love this quote from Logan, "
"The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel too fast and you miss all you are traveling for." Yeah, it ends with a preposition, but still....
"The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel too fast and you miss all you are traveling for." Yeah, it ends with a preposition, but still....
September 10, 2019
Every once in a while, I like to read a Western, and this one hit the right spot. I liked the rugged action, vivid descriptions, and muscular prose. The hero takes his licks, but they don't slow him down. I believe it's part of a series and can be read as a stand alone novel. The women characters are just as tough and persistent as their male counterparts. I'll read more Westerns this autumn and winter.
November 5, 2025
Gotta love a Sackett book! Down the Long Hills and Ride the River are my all time favs, but this rates high.
July 29, 2016
Wow. What a real western. Logan Sackett goes far beyond measure to make sure Em Talons homestead ranch does not get into bad hands...
Jack Flanner tries to force the old woman to give up the ranch and its fertile ranching grounds, and it appears as much he will succeed.. Until Logan Sackett alone, seemingly turns the tide of fortune to one where the ranch maybe saved... Just maybe.
A great tale of the great West American Frontier, full of the best and the worst of what the old west had to offer.
No law, just men settling things among themselves, sometimes the hard way.
A truly great novel, one of the best I have ever read.
Jack Flanner tries to force the old woman to give up the ranch and its fertile ranching grounds, and it appears as much he will succeed.. Until Logan Sackett alone, seemingly turns the tide of fortune to one where the ranch maybe saved... Just maybe.
A great tale of the great West American Frontier, full of the best and the worst of what the old west had to offer.
No law, just men settling things among themselves, sometimes the hard way.
A truly great novel, one of the best I have ever read.
May 30, 2009
Loving it. The plot turns are awfully convenient, but I love the language, and then there's useful stuff like this:
"I'd backed up against that grove on purpose. Looked at from down below no smoke would show against the white of the tree trunks and the gray-green of the leaves...
There's no prettier place than a stand of aspen. The elk and beaver like the bitter inner bark, and you'll nearly always find them where there's aspen. There's no thing that provides more grub for wildlife than the aspen grove.
There's usually wood around. The aspen is self-pruning, and as it grows taller it sheds its lower branches, just naturally reaching for the sun. Those branches dry out quickly and make excellent kindling."
***
Well, my initial enthusiasm dimmed. The book had some problems I found hard to ignore.
The "useful stuff" I admired above was an instance, I came to see, of L'Amour's tendency to cache gobbets of undigested research here and there (how's that for a disgusting image? undigested research, ew!).
The convenience of the plot turns was annoying ("What, there's no way into the ranch, you say? Well, here's a girl who know an old secret trail that no one else knows about..."). And, L'Amour has a bad habit of telegraphing the plot, too-- in one paragraph he'll be all, Oh, no! I hope the bad guys don't catch us on fire! and then, two paragraphs later, what do you know! The bad guys set fire to the place.
The hero, Logan Sackett, keeps saying he's "mean", and is supposed to be some kind of outlaw-- but we only ever see him being noble (okay, he kills a bunch of people, but in context it's noble). He's also distressingly invincible.
I don't know if I'll read the other L'Amours I found, after all.
But there were a couple of things I really like about this book:
The phrase "since who flunk the chunk"-- a beautiful, mysterious phrase! It means "for a long time", or "a long time ago", but I can't figure out where it comes from.
The term "back trail", which can be a verb, meaning "to follow", or a noun-- and the idea of tracking or trailing in general. I like the idea that wherever a person goes he or she leaves behind signs.
"I'd backed up against that grove on purpose. Looked at from down below no smoke would show against the white of the tree trunks and the gray-green of the leaves...
There's no prettier place than a stand of aspen. The elk and beaver like the bitter inner bark, and you'll nearly always find them where there's aspen. There's no thing that provides more grub for wildlife than the aspen grove.
There's usually wood around. The aspen is self-pruning, and as it grows taller it sheds its lower branches, just naturally reaching for the sun. Those branches dry out quickly and make excellent kindling."
***
Well, my initial enthusiasm dimmed. The book had some problems I found hard to ignore.
The "useful stuff" I admired above was an instance, I came to see, of L'Amour's tendency to cache gobbets of undigested research here and there (how's that for a disgusting image? undigested research, ew!).
The convenience of the plot turns was annoying ("What, there's no way into the ranch, you say? Well, here's a girl who know an old secret trail that no one else knows about..."). And, L'Amour has a bad habit of telegraphing the plot, too-- in one paragraph he'll be all, Oh, no! I hope the bad guys don't catch us on fire! and then, two paragraphs later, what do you know! The bad guys set fire to the place.
The hero, Logan Sackett, keeps saying he's "mean", and is supposed to be some kind of outlaw-- but we only ever see him being noble (okay, he kills a bunch of people, but in context it's noble). He's also distressingly invincible.
I don't know if I'll read the other L'Amours I found, after all.
But there were a couple of things I really like about this book:
The phrase "since who flunk the chunk"-- a beautiful, mysterious phrase! It means "for a long time", or "a long time ago", but I can't figure out where it comes from.
The term "back trail", which can be a verb, meaning "to follow", or a noun-- and the idea of tracking or trailing in general. I like the idea that wherever a person goes he or she leaves behind signs.
October 27, 2022
When you pick up a Sackett novel, you know you're among family. Literally. For those who don't know, Louis L'amour wanted to tell the history of the West through the stories of three families--the Sacketts from England, the Talons from France, and the Chantrys from Ireland. 20% of his entire ouvere is made up of the stories of the Sackett family.
Here we have Logan Sackett, drifts into the town of Siwash, looking for a place to lay his head for a couple of days, and immediately someone tries recruiting him to help drive off an old woman from her land. That doesn't sit well with Logan on its face, and then he learns she was born a Sackett. Well, you can guess whose side he's on.
From that point the story is pretty basic.
What struck me as I was reading this book--the first time I've re-read it in years--is I finally realized why the Sackett stories are the most popular of L'Amour's books. It's the theme of family. In any Sackett story, the family figures in one way or another. Even if the story is about a single Sackett, he's always referring to his brothers and other members of the family. Or you have titles such as the Sackett Brand, where Tell Sackett is cornered by hired gunslingers, and the entire fam-damn-ily rushes to his rescue, brothers, cousins, uncles, second cousins, everyone. The overarching message/theme/frame is the importance of family, and loyalty.
That's my two cents worth anyway.
Here we have Logan Sackett, drifts into the town of Siwash, looking for a place to lay his head for a couple of days, and immediately someone tries recruiting him to help drive off an old woman from her land. That doesn't sit well with Logan on its face, and then he learns she was born a Sackett. Well, you can guess whose side he's on.
From that point the story is pretty basic.
What struck me as I was reading this book--the first time I've re-read it in years--is I finally realized why the Sackett stories are the most popular of L'Amour's books. It's the theme of family. In any Sackett story, the family figures in one way or another. Even if the story is about a single Sackett, he's always referring to his brothers and other members of the family. Or you have titles such as the Sackett Brand, where Tell Sackett is cornered by hired gunslingers, and the entire fam-damn-ily rushes to his rescue, brothers, cousins, uncles, second cousins, everyone. The overarching message/theme/frame is the importance of family, and loyalty.
That's my two cents worth anyway.
January 3, 2023
Read this because this is where my parents got my name from. Pretty cool to be named after the badass, rough riding cowboy, Logan Sackett. I was actually gifted a copy of the book from my parents when I was 12 and I thought it was the worst gift ever because what 12 year old wants a book for his birthday. Well fast forward 12 years and I love nothing more than getting gifted books…we love the character development. I also really enjoyed the book aside from it being my namesake which surprised me because the western genre is not something I think I would ever venture into otherwise. Louis L'Amour is the most famous western writer of all time for a reason as he is a master of transporting readers to the trails and frontiers of the west and developing really dynamic and interesting characters. This book follows Logan Sackett as he finds Emily, an older woman and long-lost family member, as she fights to keep her land and house after her husbands death and their efforts to fight off the gang of cowboys that would do anything to get the land. Very fun, short read.
May 10, 2023
Maybe my favorite L'Amour. I wish there were more Em Talon books. Also, I'm a big Milo fan.
April 8, 2025
4.5*
Really, this is awfully close to a masterpiece of its genre, written by one of the masters. It falls just short because, although it is populated with realistic characters, not a single on of them changes by the end of the novel. Oh, quite a number are dead before the end, but even those that suffer significant wounds seem to never learn anything.
However, it is a uniquely complex story, especially for a western; paints vivid pictures of the environment, and is unlikely to ever be made into a movie (thank goodness). Thoroughly enjoyed the "ride" (see what I did there?).
BTW I do not think I have read any of the 15 previously novels in this series, but it did not matter reading this one.
Really, this is awfully close to a masterpiece of its genre, written by one of the masters. It falls just short because, although it is populated with realistic characters, not a single on of them changes by the end of the novel. Oh, quite a number are dead before the end, but even those that suffer significant wounds seem to never learn anything.
However, it is a uniquely complex story, especially for a western; paints vivid pictures of the environment, and is unlikely to ever be made into a movie (thank goodness). Thoroughly enjoyed the "ride" (see what I did there?).
BTW I do not think I have read any of the 15 previously novels in this series, but it did not matter reading this one.
June 13, 2020
I enjoyed this story. This is the second time that Logan Sackett has shown up in one of these stories. There is more about him than in GALLOWAY or TREASURE MOUNTAIN. Even the Sackett men that are riding a fine line between outlaw and cowboy have a code they stick by. They protect women and children, they come running when family is in trouble and they hate cheaters and liars. They can work hard, track as well as most Indians and they never shoot unless it is to kill.
This was a good story and for most of it you are hoping that the Emily Talon's sons will show up in time to help with the people trying to run their Mom off her place. Em isn't any wilting flower though. She grew up in the Tennessee mountains and is as good a shot as any Sackett male. She can track as well and hunt as well as them also. She is one of the woman that young girls should take an example from. I liked her alot.
I also liked Milo and Barnabas when we finally met them. I do wish there had been more about the boys after they showed up. I understand that Milo shows up in two other books by Louis L'Amour. This is a quick read that anyone that enjoys westerns will find exciting and not easy to put down.
This was a good story and for most of it you are hoping that the Emily Talon's sons will show up in time to help with the people trying to run their Mom off her place. Em isn't any wilting flower though. She grew up in the Tennessee mountains and is as good a shot as any Sackett male. She can track as well and hunt as well as them also. She is one of the woman that young girls should take an example from. I liked her alot.
I also liked Milo and Barnabas when we finally met them. I do wish there had been more about the boys after they showed up. I understand that Milo shows up in two other books by Louis L'Amour. This is a quick read that anyone that enjoys westerns will find exciting and not easy to put down.
February 11, 2020
Almost the end of the Sackett saga and this war a really, really good one.
The story opens with a lonely old lady, guarding the ranch her late husband built for them many years ago.
Her two sons gone for a few years - Milo off exploring the west through the ‘Outlaw Trail’ and his brother Barnabass off in Europe.
She is alone and surrounded by enemies, who figured that taking a huge ranch from a frail old woman would be piece of cake.
Enter Logan Sackett, who, with a help of a young girl and a lone cowhand will do all he can to help the old woman fight off the bad guys. After all, her name used to be Sackett before she married a Talon.
******
This was well executed story that had me excited from start to finish.
Louis L’Amour smartly introducing us to a new family clan, the Talons that have connections with the Sacketts here and there.
It was well paced, with plenty of action and intrigue.
The end was a little screwy, but oh well, can’t have everything I suppose.
Well worth the read, which I am really happy, since it’s the second to last in the Sackett saga.
The story opens with a lonely old lady, guarding the ranch her late husband built for them many years ago.
Her two sons gone for a few years - Milo off exploring the west through the ‘Outlaw Trail’ and his brother Barnabass off in Europe.
She is alone and surrounded by enemies, who figured that taking a huge ranch from a frail old woman would be piece of cake.
Enter Logan Sackett, who, with a help of a young girl and a lone cowhand will do all he can to help the old woman fight off the bad guys. After all, her name used to be Sackett before she married a Talon.
******
This was well executed story that had me excited from start to finish.
Louis L’Amour smartly introducing us to a new family clan, the Talons that have connections with the Sacketts here and there.
It was well paced, with plenty of action and intrigue.
The end was a little screwy, but oh well, can’t have everything I suppose.
Well worth the read, which I am really happy, since it’s the second to last in the Sackett saga.
December 7, 2017
Logan Sackett is a man who left his home and life of Tennessee and went west. He wanted to find a better life and have an opportunity to succeed. The story has a great plot line of the Sackett family, Logan Helps a widow in Colorado to save her land. He will do anything it takes to help Emily Talon, a Sackett of Tennessee as well. The story ends on a typical western with a happy ending, Em keeps her land and Logan begins to travel again, one again searching for his possibility for a new life in the west.
May 4, 2013
Always enjoy reading the works of Louis L'Amour. He tells nice tales of western adventures, allowing myself an welcome fictional journey into the old west. This book from the Sackett series brings Logan Sackett along the trail to meet Emily Talon (a Sackett prior to her marriage) who is in deep trouble. Needless to say he stays to help.
January 7, 2021
Logan Sackett is a cynical drifter who helps an old woman save her land from greedy neighbors. Emily Talon is a fiery old widow fighting the locals. When Logan discovers that Emily was born a Sackett there is no way he can run away from the fight.
August 17, 2014
Good entry in the Sackett's series as Logan Sackett comes to help Em Talon (a Sackett by birth) keep her ranch out of the hands of a land grabber. Her sons, Milo & Barnabas, are also on hand, but this is Logan Sackett's tale. Recommended to all western and L'Amour fans.
April 23, 2024
Number 16 of the 17 book series! Almost done! This one is one of my favorites so far besides some of the earlier ones. A bit more nuanced plot and the usual classic one-liners. Everything you’d want from a L’Amour Western!
March 4, 2013
Another good, solid addition to the Sackett series by Louis L'Amour. A quick read with a satisfying ending.
REcommended for Western fans.
REcommended for Western fans.
June 25, 2025
3.95
Middle of the road
I do like logan, but this was just ok
Middle of the road
I do like logan, but this was just ok
November 16, 2025
Definitely one of L’amour’s darker books. Logan Sackett claims that he is one of the rowdier Sacketts and he lives up to that title.
November 11, 2025
I finished the Sackett series with 'Ride the Dark Trail.' I enjoyed meeting the extended Sackett clan via the Talon family. I would love to see more of them, but I am happy to have followed the adventures that Louis L'Amour gave us.
June 3, 2025
Another Sackettnclassic!
April 1, 2018
I really liked this book, not so much for Logan Sackett as for Emily Talon who was born a Sackett. I would love to be as tough and brave as she can be.
Of course there are bad guys galore; it wouldn't be much of a story to have the hero ride into town and ride out without anything happening. I enjoyed the description of the land as well as the way that the characters thought out why they were doing what they were doing.
Easily read as a stand-alone tale, it does do better to read it in series order (either chronological or publication) so to pick up more nuances. I'd suggest it to anyone who enjoys Westerns.
Of course there are bad guys galore; it wouldn't be much of a story to have the hero ride into town and ride out without anything happening. I enjoyed the description of the land as well as the way that the characters thought out why they were doing what they were doing.
Easily read as a stand-alone tale, it does do better to read it in series order (either chronological or publication) so to pick up more nuances. I'd suggest it to anyone who enjoys Westerns.
April 23, 2019
On a recent trip to visit family, I learned that Louis L'amour had been friends with my grandmother's brother. This book's main character is named for that great uncle. I have not read Louis L'Amour probably since the 80s when I first discovered that he had written an entire series named after my grandmother's family. I stopped reading it because he started skipping time periods and the amateur historian in me wanted the books to follow a strict chronology. This book reminded me what a great storyteller Louis was. A great read! I will be going back and picking up where I left off with the Sacketts series and perhaps others, as well.
April 8, 2018
MEET EMILY SACKETT TALON
The Sackett Clan are all over the country. Primarily Tennessee Mountains. They all are sturdy strong men. Some are educated others can barely read or write. This adventure we get to meet Emily Sackett Talon of the Cumberland Sacketts.. Logan Sackett whose twin is Nolan Sackett makes his debut...men and women to ride the river with...
The Sackett Series is well worth reading love them especially William Tell Sackett..ENJOY
The Sackett Clan are all over the country. Primarily Tennessee Mountains. They all are sturdy strong men. Some are educated others can barely read or write. This adventure we get to meet Emily Sackett Talon of the Cumberland Sacketts.. Logan Sackett whose twin is Nolan Sackett makes his debut...men and women to ride the river with...
The Sackett Series is well worth reading love them especially William Tell Sackett..ENJOY
May 18, 2024
This is my absolute favorite of all the Sackett books. Also like that in this book figures Isom Dart, a black cowboy/outlaw that actually existed.
May 28, 2014
Good book. I skimmed through the last few pages because I was tired of reading all the details and narration and wanted to get the the final shootout. But I liked the characters and the plot.
January 9, 2021
I read my very first Western! And, I liked it.
There was a fair amount of what you’d expect and somethings that you, or at least I, wouldn’t.
Ride the Dark Trail opens up with a description of a house (I love descriptions of houses) and a group of three men trying to get in except they can’t because Emily Talon will shoot. I envisioned the hero of the book to be a big burly man, and it ends up being so, but at the end of the book it’s not just the big burly man that rides off into the sunset (and this is not a romantic kind of scene).
The big burly man is Logan Sackett and turns out he and Emily Talon are both Clinch Mountain Sacketts. Since they are family, Logan decides to stay and help Emily Talon defend her ranch against the man who’s trying to take it for his own. After taking care of a few local nuisances (i.e., that group of three men), Logan sets out to get word to Emily’s sons of the danger she is in. He gets on his horse and off he goes, and, as anticipated, he crosses paths with less than desirable characters and specifically one that will make things more difficult for Logan.
“The Dutchman was hard…he was stone. His brain was eroded granite where the few ideas he had carved deep their ruts of opinion. There was no way for another idea to seep in, no place for imagination, no place for dreams, none for compassion or mercy or even fear.
He knew no shadings of emotion, he knew no half rights or half-wrongs or pity or excuse, nor had he any sense of pardon. The more I thought of him the more I knew he was not evil in himself, and he would have been shocked that anybody though of him as evil. Shocked for a moment only, then he’d have shut the idea from his mind as non-sense. For the deepest groove worn into that granite brain was the one of his own rightness.
And that scared me.
A man like that can be dangerous, and it made me uneasy to be riding in the same country with him. Maybe it was that I’d sense guilt around him and he smelled it.”
I expected adventure, chases, fights, and all, but I wasn’t expecting a bit of mediation on personalities.
This book was supposed to be completely different from my previous read, The Game of Kings, as it left me with a huge book hangover and I needed a completely different kind of story to get through it. And although Ride the Dark Trail is not at all like The Game of Kings, that quote reminded me a lot of the main character from The Game of Kings, Francis Crawford of Lymond.
Logan and Lymond don’t claim to be perfect. They recognize their own faults and weaknesses and they are suspicious of those who don’t recognize any faults within themselves or rather those that do and try to cover it up with self-righteousness.
What else can I say about Logan that endears me to him –
He’s loyal, courageous, gives men and women their due - for their strength, bravery, and wits. His respect for women goes beyond saving a damsel in distress.
Logan is continually impressed with Emily Talon’s daring along with the courage of the girl that he does rescue along the way (yes, a damsel in distress moment in this book does exist, although I wouldn’t call Pennywell a damsel). After a particularly intense altercation in which the women hold their own Logan enthuses “Man, those were women!”
And after finishing the book, I say “Man, that was fun!”
There was a fair amount of what you’d expect and somethings that you, or at least I, wouldn’t.
Ride the Dark Trail opens up with a description of a house (I love descriptions of houses) and a group of three men trying to get in except they can’t because Emily Talon will shoot. I envisioned the hero of the book to be a big burly man, and it ends up being so, but at the end of the book it’s not just the big burly man that rides off into the sunset (and this is not a romantic kind of scene).
The big burly man is Logan Sackett and turns out he and Emily Talon are both Clinch Mountain Sacketts. Since they are family, Logan decides to stay and help Emily Talon defend her ranch against the man who’s trying to take it for his own. After taking care of a few local nuisances (i.e., that group of three men), Logan sets out to get word to Emily’s sons of the danger she is in. He gets on his horse and off he goes, and, as anticipated, he crosses paths with less than desirable characters and specifically one that will make things more difficult for Logan.
“The Dutchman was hard…he was stone. His brain was eroded granite where the few ideas he had carved deep their ruts of opinion. There was no way for another idea to seep in, no place for imagination, no place for dreams, none for compassion or mercy or even fear.
He knew no shadings of emotion, he knew no half rights or half-wrongs or pity or excuse, nor had he any sense of pardon. The more I thought of him the more I knew he was not evil in himself, and he would have been shocked that anybody though of him as evil. Shocked for a moment only, then he’d have shut the idea from his mind as non-sense. For the deepest groove worn into that granite brain was the one of his own rightness.
And that scared me.
A man like that can be dangerous, and it made me uneasy to be riding in the same country with him. Maybe it was that I’d sense guilt around him and he smelled it.”
I expected adventure, chases, fights, and all, but I wasn’t expecting a bit of mediation on personalities.
This book was supposed to be completely different from my previous read, The Game of Kings, as it left me with a huge book hangover and I needed a completely different kind of story to get through it. And although Ride the Dark Trail is not at all like The Game of Kings, that quote reminded me a lot of the main character from The Game of Kings, Francis Crawford of Lymond.
Logan and Lymond don’t claim to be perfect. They recognize their own faults and weaknesses and they are suspicious of those who don’t recognize any faults within themselves or rather those that do and try to cover it up with self-righteousness.
What else can I say about Logan that endears me to him –
He’s loyal, courageous, gives men and women their due - for their strength, bravery, and wits. His respect for women goes beyond saving a damsel in distress.
Logan is continually impressed with Emily Talon’s daring along with the courage of the girl that he does rescue along the way (yes, a damsel in distress moment in this book does exist, although I wouldn’t call Pennywell a damsel). After a particularly intense altercation in which the women hold their own Logan enthuses “Man, those were women!”
And after finishing the book, I say “Man, that was fun!”
August 27, 2025
What I loved about Hondo is L'Amour's saddle tramp lifestyle explained in moment to moment detail. How men prepare a bed and fire and sleep outdoors is seen but not explained in the movies. L'Amour shows you the tasks involved in just living. In this book we get a good lesson on how you track people and how you prevent people from tracking you. He explains why rubbing out your hoof prints is a sign the same as leaving the hoof prints. L'Amour also goes into detail about the importance of a good horse and the way a cowboy bonds with such a horse. I loved all these moments. The plot of the story is familiar but with a twist or two. Our hero, a Sackett from Tennessee drifts into a western town and saves a young woman from the advances of lechers in the tavern. This puts Sackett in immediate conflict with a local outlaw/leading citizen. Sackett escapes with the girl who leads him to the ranch of an old widow who our villain is trying to kill and steal her property. A shame it was written in the 1970s because it would have made a good Randolph Scott movie twenty years prior. Hat tip to Jeff Tankersley who has been reading them in total and put this second on his list of importance.
July 22, 2019
Logan Sackett is probably the roughest Sackett...which makes sense, being a Clinch Mountain fella and all, but this book was pretty disappointing. It sort of continues on the theme of "The Sackett Brand," where the idea is that if you step on one Sackett's toes, they call come running. Em Talon is under siege with men trying to take her ranch when Logan rides into town. Logan is a wanted man (though the reason is never really stated) and when he finds out that Em is also a Clinch Mountain Sackett, he sticks around to "read from the Book," as the Sackett truism goes.
The problem is that there are a lot of false starts in this book and issues that are never resolved. Sure, there is some action, but much of it is nonsensical and while L'Amour broke from his normal pattern of having the main character save the damsel in distress and then marry her (which would have been weird here), this just doesn't quite fit the shoes of others in the series.
The problem is that there are a lot of false starts in this book and issues that are never resolved. Sure, there is some action, but much of it is nonsensical and while L'Amour broke from his normal pattern of having the main character save the damsel in distress and then marry her (which would have been weird here), this just doesn't quite fit the shoes of others in the series.
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