Son of a Wanted Man

The ending in this one is awfully abrupt, but otherwise this was a fun story about organized outlaws in the Wild West.

Mike, an orphan, has been raised by the leader of a very successful band of outlaws. Now the leader wants to retire, leaving the band to Mike, who isn't sure the life of an outlaw is right for him. While he's pondering, he has to worry about members of the gang who would like to take over, and then he meets a beautiful young woman and starts thinking about settling down instead.

This is one of the works by L’Amour that never caught my fancy. Nothing specific, but it just never had “it”.

Well developed characters in the foster father and his son and the tracker, as well as the two sheriffs. Action moves the story along.

Western

boy chooses law over outlaw

From Publishers Weekly In the thrilling radio serials of yesteryear, the momentum of the tale kept listeners from imagining actors in a studio reading scripts. Not so with this selection. The acting is noticeably awkward, possibly because, unlike "live" radio, this classic western was recorded out of sequence for budgetary reasons. The sound effects, however, outshine the acting: they are so sharp that the listener may look up when hearing incoming footsteps or try to duck a rifle shot. But the music, composed and recorded for this presentation, is inappropriate. Imagine John Tesh on New-Age, echoing guitar. More fitting would have been old-style music from that era, or even the swelling organ from the serials of yore. The ring of show more authenticity that this production lacks arrives only after the story is over, when listeners are treated to an archival interview with L'Amour himself, who grew up skinning cattle and talking to folks who knew real gunslingers. This last disc also contains "The Making of Son of a Wanted Man," which is educational, fascinating and a bit sad when one considers how the best-laid plans run awry. Based on the Bantam paperback. (Jan.)
Copyright � Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Product Description An outlaw's legacy... In a remote corner of Utah lies the secret outlaw kingdom of Ben Curry. For fifteen years Curry has ruled supreme, as his men have pulled jobs from Canada to Mexico. But the king is getting old... he wants to turn his legacy over to someone younger, tougher. Mike Bastian is Ben's adopted son, a young man who can handle a knife, a gun, his fists, but a man who's never broken the law. Now, as treachery explodes among Ben's riders, and two honest lawmen—Tyrel Sackett and Borden Chantry—begin to zero in on the gang, Mike must choose...between his loyalty to Ben and his yearning for a different life. Yet when the guns start echoing off the Vermilion Cliffs, the time for choosing is over—and the time for battle has begun. show less