Customer Reviews

Son of a Wanted Man (The Louis L'Amour Collection)

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Son of a Wanted Man is a captivating western that can hook anyone onto the Louis L'amour series. It leads the reader to feel compassion for the boy raised by outlaws to take over as the head of an outfit of robbers. But when the boy becomes a man and it's time to take over after his foster father, his conscience gets the best of him. He's not cut out to be a "bad man". Seeing that the leader of the outfit is stepping down, the men become anxious and power hungry and decide to act on their own. Son of a Wanted Man is full of suspense and leaves the reader feeling satisfied by the exciting ending.

"Son of a Wanted Man," by Louis L'Amour, was first published in 1984. Louis L'Amour is most known for his excellent Westerns, and this novel is no exception. The book is filled with gunfights, pursuits, and a little bit of romance as well.

Ben Curry was the mastermind of well-planed robberies from Canada to Mexico and from San Antone to Los Angeles. Because the robberies were so well planed, almost no clues were left behind. Tyrel Sackett and Borden Chantry begin to look deeper into these robberies and piece together the clues, because Sackett's town was recently robbed.

Ben Curry also planned ahead for his own retirement by raising an orphaned boy, Mike Bastian, as his son. Curry wanted Mike to take leadership of the outlaws, now that he felt Mike was ready. But did Mike want to follow in his foster father's footsteps? And to make matters worse for Mike, several of the outlaws didn't like the idea and would rather become the leader. With Sackett and Chantry looking into their activities, there is plenty of suspense and action in this book.

To be an outlaw or to live life on the straight and narrow. This is the question that Mike Bastian must answer and is the crux of L'Amour's Son of a Wanted Man. Bastian is a young man raised by the powerful outlaw Ben Curry as his own son. It is Curry's wish that Bastian take over the outlaw gang when he chooses to step down.

Throughout the story, the reader travels along as Mike tries to come to terms with his own fate and make the decision best for him. L'Amour introduces interesting characters such as Roundy, the old hand of the outlaw gang, and Ducrow who becomes the nemesis of Bastian. Not only is there an inner battle, but L'Amour narrates a tale of the Old West sure to please. The story is filled with high adventure as Mike takes off across the Old West in an attempt to rescue one of Curry's daughters from members of the gang who wish to overthrow Curry.

Paralleling this tale is the story of Borden Chantry, the marshall of a small Colorado town who must defend his town from the oncoming maurauders who have broken from Ben Curry's gang. Enter Tyrel Sackett, the Mora gunfighter, who helps Chantry with the outlaws.

L'Amour creates a tale of high adventure and paints a wonderful picture of the Old West. His dialogue is true and believable and his characters are entertaining and intriguing. The prose is fluid and the story carries along at a good pace.

For those who have never read a Western before, like myself, this is truly entertaining and will have you going back for more.

Great story about a son who is rased by outlaws to be the perfect outlaw. But when the time comes to choose which path to take, he has to make a decision. Great western and even has a Sackett in it. This was the very first L'Amour book that I read and it is a good one. I love the scene where a character walks across a wire strung across a canyon. L'Amour writes it in a way that you can just see it.

He has been trained by the best. He can track, shoot, and more importantly, he can think. He's been raised to take over his father's gang of hundreds of outlaws stretching all over the country. But he must now decide if that is the life he wishes to lead. In the meantime there's disention in the ranks, a pair of wise lawmen on the gang's trail, and a woman with the fire of a stallion eating away at his heart. All this and more will face the son of a wanted man. It was a terrific story that keeps moving until the final page. I loved it. The story has everything that you look for in a Louis L'Amour book.