Louis L'Amour: Ride the River
The library at the ashram where I grew up had a bunch of Louis L'Amour westerns. My recollection was that they were rather better than one might expect, but I didn't read any as an adult until I wanted to get a feel for the archetypal western, and recalled a scene in one in which a woman kills a thug by stabbing him with a tree branch. Naturally, I wanted to re-read that one, and so asked whatwasthatbook which one it was. They suggested this one. It's not this one. But it does contain a sixteen-year-old girl single-handedly taking out assorted thugs with her rifle and knife, so I was happy.
Echo Sackett is a Sackett. That means she's a backwoods badass who shoots bears for meat, and also that if she ever gets in trouble, badass Sacketts will come out of the woodwork to kill people for her. She hears that she's inherited some money, and because her badass uncle is laid up after going claw-to-axe with a bear, she sets out for the big city all by herself. Most of the people she meets think she either needs protecting or is is easy picking. The one guy, an elderly but still badass lawyer with a sword cane, who knows she's a Sackett knows otherwise. But since she ends up pursued by a large gang, he sics his cityfied nephew and his friend, a free black man, on her for backup.
The nephew thinks Echo is cute but helpless. Echo knows the nephew is cute but helpless. There is a climactic battle in the woods, in which Echo is helped by her assigned protectors (whom she mostly ends up protecting) and several random Sacketts. But even with this, guess who takes out three thugs single-handed, then returns to finish off the big bad? Echo! Yay! She gets the guy, too. And three thousand dollars and a ruby in a puzzle box. And a dog. Very satisfying.
View on Amazon: Ride the River (The Sacketts)
ETA: If I were to read more by Louis L'Amour, which should I read and why? Kickass women and second sight is good; cringe-worthy portrayals of Indians (or women, etc) are bad.
Echo Sackett is a Sackett. That means she's a backwoods badass who shoots bears for meat, and also that if she ever gets in trouble, badass Sacketts will come out of the woodwork to kill people for her. She hears that she's inherited some money, and because her badass uncle is laid up after going claw-to-axe with a bear, she sets out for the big city all by herself. Most of the people she meets think she either needs protecting or is is easy picking. The one guy, an elderly but still badass lawyer with a sword cane, who knows she's a Sackett knows otherwise. But since she ends up pursued by a large gang, he sics his cityfied nephew and his friend, a free black man, on her for backup.
The nephew thinks Echo is cute but helpless. Echo knows the nephew is cute but helpless. There is a climactic battle in the woods, in which Echo is helped by her assigned protectors (whom she mostly ends up protecting) and several random Sacketts. But even with this, guess who takes out three thugs single-handed, then returns to finish off the big bad? Echo! Yay! She gets the guy, too. And three thousand dollars and a ruby in a puzzle box. And a dog. Very satisfying.
View on Amazon: Ride the River (The Sacketts)
ETA: If I were to read more by Louis L'Amour, which should I read and why? Kickass women and second sight is good; cringe-worthy portrayals of Indians (or women, etc) are bad.