Reilly's Luck

I had fond memories of this novel & should have kept them. Beau Bridges read the book. His gravelly voice was OK for some parts, but the women's voices were horrible & a couple of women had very important parts in the novel. Still, he was OK for the adult male parts & was acceptable for the boy's.

Unfortunately, the plot was full of convenience. OK, the end needed to be a convenient great meeting, but there were far too many others scattered throughout the story which skipped through time like a thrown stone. It could have used fleshing out in more than a few places. Instead, we're just told that "it was so" & usually that was the achievement of some skill that took a lot of practice, but there never seemed to be the time for it. Perfect show more heroes give me a pain, too.

For all the spare writing & speed of the story line, L'Amour managed to repeat himself endlessly on the attributes & motivations of the characters as if the repetition would make them more believable. Didn't work.

Overall, the story is a good one, but the execution just failed in this format & time. show less

I've read almost every book L'Amour wrote, and as far as I am concerned this is not one of the author's better works. Though parts were good it dragged at times, and I debated if I should give it 2 1/2 or 3 stars.

Val Darrant and Will Reilly met up one sold, snowy night when four-year-old Val had been left to die of exposure and Will was seeking a new way to play the odds. It's a most unlikely pairing--especially on the American frontier--and only Louis L'Amour could bring them together in this, another spirited tale of adventure and courage.

Val has had an unusual upbringing. Abandoned by his mother, who found him inconvenient, he is raised by a gentlemanly gambler. Now he is grown, his benefactor is dead by treachery, and Val must decide the path his life will follow.

A good cowboy story. An orphan is left to die by his mother and is taken in by a gambler. Worthwhile reading.

The story begins slowly but progresses towards an interesting ending. This story is of a young boy whose mother wanted nothing to do with him, and had wanted Val Durrant abandoned or left in the cold to die but Van brought Val to Will Reilly who raised Val tell Reilly was shot and killed. I choses this book because my grandpa suggested it to me.

another excellent story by a favorite; easy a; fun and fast read