The High Graders
by Louis L'Amour
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Description
Fiction. Western. Thriller. Historical Fiction. The story was that Eli Patterson had died in a gunfight, but Mike Shevlin knew it couldn’t be true: the man who’d been like a father to him had been a Quaker. But when Shevlin rides back to Rafter Crossing to uncover the truth, he finds that the quiet ranching community has become a booming mining town. Newfound wealth has not made Rafter a peaceful place, however, and the smell of fear and greed is thick in the air. As Mike Shevlin tries show more to unravel the mystery of Patterson’s death, he is led deeper and deeper into a conspiracy that controls not only the fate of Rafter Crossing but the heart of a beautiful but tormented young woman—and Shevlin’s own destiny. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Just an average L'Amour. The concept of high-grading was interesting, although I was skeptical about the whole town being basically on the take. All the factions were a little confusing. But it was a nice change from the typical cowboy story, with a focus on mining.
A story of mining, cattle, and how easy it is to look the other way when there's gold for the taking. Good read, better than average L'Amour.
Mike Shevlin returns to Rafter Crossing to find out who murdered his friend, Eli Patterson. Soon he is trying to stay out of the fight between the miners and the cattlemen as he tries to figure out how Ben Stowe is going to move the gold he is stealing from the mine he manages.
Initially Shevlin is distrusted by everyone but as his honesty becomes evident, men and women swing to his side as he heads into a showdown with Stowe. This not one of L'Amour's better efforts.
Initially Shevlin is distrusted by everyone but as his honesty becomes evident, men and women swing to his side as he heads into a showdown with Stowe. This not one of L'Amour's better efforts.
Not one of his best: shady miners are stealing ore from out-of-town owners, and Mike Shevlin decides to help out while investigating the death of the man who was like a father to him.
A conflict between miners and cattlemen comes to a boil, when Mike Shevlin rides in and finds an entire town ensnared in a scheme to steal the gold from its rightful owner.
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Author Information
870+ Works 99,170 Members
Born in Jamestown, North Dakota on March 22, 1908, Louis L'Amour's adventurous life could have been the subject of one of his novels. Striking out on his own in 1923, at age 15, L'Amour began a peripatetic existence, taking whatever jobs were available, from skinning dead cattle to being a sailor. L'Amour knew early in life that he wanted to be a show more writer, and the experiences of those years serve as background for some of his later fiction. During the 1930s he published short stories and poetry; his career was interrupted by army service in World War II. After the war, L'Amour began writing for western pulp magazines and wrote several books in the Hopalong Cassidy series using the pseudonym Tex Burns. His first novel, Westward the Tide (1950), serves as an example of L'Amour's frontier fiction, for it is an action-packed adventure story containing the themes and motifs that he uses throughout his career. His fascination with history and his belief in the inevitability of manifest destiny are clear. Also present and typical of L'Amour's work are the strong, capable, beautiful heroine who is immediately attracted to the equally capable hero; a clear moral split between good and evil; reflections on the Native Americans, whose land and ways of life are being disrupted; and a happy ending. Although his work is somewhat less violent than that of other western writers, L'Amour's novels all contain their fair share of action, usually in the form of gunfights or fistfights. L'Amour's major contribution to the western genre is his attempt to create, in 40 or more books, the stories of three families whose histories intertwine as the generations advance across the American frontier. The novels of the Irish Chantry, English Sackett, and French Talon families are L'Amour's most ambitious project, and sadly were left unfinished at his death. Although L'Amour did not complete all of the novels, enough of the series exists to demonstrate his vision. L'Amour's strongest attribute is his ability to tell a compelling story; readers do not mind if the story is similar to one they have read before, for in the telling, L'Amour adds enough small twists of plot and detail to make it worth the reader's while. L'Amour fans also enjoy the bits of information he includes about everything from wilderness survival skills to finding the right person to marry. These lessons give readers the sense that they are getting their money's worth, that there is more to a L'Amour novel than sheer escapism. With over 200 million copies of his books in print worldwide, L'Amour must be counted as one of the most influential writers of westerns in this century. He died from lung cancer on June 10, 1988. (Bowker Author Biography) Louis L'Amour, truly America's favorite storyteller, was the first fiction writer ever to receive the Congressional Gold Medal from the United States Congress in honor of his life's work, & was also awarded the Medal of Freedom. There are over 260 million copies of his books in print worldwide. (Publisher Provided) show less
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1965
- People/Characters
- Mike Shevlin (fictitious); Wilson Hoyt (fictitious); Eve Bancroft (fictitious); Ray Hollister (fictitious); Babcock (fictitious); Laine Tennison (fictitious) (show all 10); Gib Gentry (fictitious); Ben Stowe (fictitious); Clagg Merriam (fictitious); Dr. Rupert Clagg (fictitious)
- Important places
- Rafter Crossing
- Epigraph
- [None]
- Dedication
- [None]
- First words
- Mike Shevlin squatted on his heels in the driving rain and struck a match under the shelter of his slicker.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)It was raining, too, up at Stone Cabin, just as it had long ago.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 651
- Popularity
- 44,157
- Reviews
- 7
- Rating
- (3.69)
- Languages
- English, Norwegian (Bokmål)
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 22
- ASINs
- 16
