Radigan
by Louis L'Amour
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Fiction. Western. Thriller. Historical Fiction. HTML:When beautiful Angelina Foley presents Tom Radigan with a Spanish grant and claims ownership of his land, he realizes he’s up against a cunning and deadly opportunist. Foley wants him off Vache Creek immediately, and with three thousand head of cattle, an outfit of hardcase gunfighters, and winter coming on, she is unwilling to take no for an answer.But Radigan has worked four hard years building up his ranch. Fighting for it—and, if show more he has to, killing for it—is something he is more than willing to do. If Angelina Foley and her men think he is the kind of man to give up without a fight, they are dead wrong. show less
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A lone rancher in high country finds himself facing a land grab by a family with thousands of cattle and bringing more hired gunmen than hired hands. Better than average L'Amour read, I finished it in one sitting.
A fast-paced Western mystery/romance. A lone rancher finds trouble when a mysterious lady with 3000 head of cattle and 30 men comes to take his land.
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A psychological thriller disguised as a Western romance. Radigan must out-think, out-track, and out-wit his opponents if he hopes to keep his ranch and even his life. I was kept reading on the edge of my seat! The ending wasn't wrapped up neatly, leaving much to the reader to surmise. I would have liked a wedding!
(The reason I was so long finishing it was because I misplace it, had surgery, was in rehab for weeks, and couldn't find it when I returned home. Finally it "turned up" under a box of Kleenex! I started over again, and finished it in two days.)
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A psychological thriller disguised as a Western romance. Radigan must out-think, out-track, and out-wit his opponents if he hopes to keep his ranch and even his life. I was kept reading on the edge of my seat! The ending wasn't wrapped up neatly, leaving much to the reader to surmise. I would have liked a wedding!
(The reason I was so long finishing it was because I misplace it, had surgery, was in rehab for weeks, and couldn't find it when I returned home. Finally it "turned up" under a box of Kleenex! I started over again, and finished it in two days.)
I'm a big fan of L'Amour after getting hooked by Lonesome Gods. I'd have to say Tom Radigan is one of my favorite L'Amour characters. L'Amour has created a perfect antagonist in Angelina. Radigan is about A land war over grazing grounds at the onset of winter, two men against an entire group of gunslinging cattleman.
It's always a pleasant surprise when you sit down with a book and youy literally do not want to put it down so, instead, you stay up until it is early in the morning and finish it. This is northern New Mexico in 1860 where the men are men, the women are women, and the slobs are slobs. radigan may not be perfect, but if he isn't i don't see it in the book. and the love affair is deliciously beautkful and cool and strong in the face of adversity, a noble match for radigan. one gets the feeling louis (despite his namesake) doesn't want to get involved in writing much about "l'smour.' In fact, after the last of the actios occurs, the book ends without any satisfaction that radigan is trapped by the stalking gretchen.
I have said elsewhere that I generally prefer L'Amour's short stories to his novels, but this is an exception, a novel I really like.
typical good guy wins, gets land and girl
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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
Work Relationships
Is contained in
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1958-10
- People/Characters
- Tom Radigan; John Child; Jim Flynn; Hickman; Downey; Sam Coker (show all 18); Vin Cable; Angelina Foley; Ross Wall; Harvey Thorpe; Adam Stark; Barbeau; Bitner; Gretchen Child; Loren Pike; Charlie Cade; Gorman; Bob Harvey
- Important places
- San Ysidro, Guadalupe River, New Mexico, USA; R-Bar Ranch, Vache Creek, San Ysidro, New Mexico, USA; Loma Coyote, Coyote Creek, New Mexico, USA
- Epigraph
- [None]
- Dedication
- [None]
- First words
- The driving rain drew a sullen, metallic curtain across the fading afternoon, and beneath his horse's hoofs the earth was soggy with this rain and that of the rains that had gone before.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And he was.
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Statistics
- Members
- 628
- Popularity
- 46,145
- Reviews
- 9
- Rating
- (3.86)
- Languages
- Czech, English, Russian
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 22
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 17
