Ride the River by Louis L’Amour

“How many are there? Of the Sacketts, I mean?”

“Nobody rightly knows, but even one Sackett is quite a few.”

-Echo Sackett

Ride the River is the first Sackett book about a girl. Echo Sackett, named after the girl from Greek mythology, is a mountain girl who can take care of herself. She leaves her home to go to the big city to get some inheritance money that is owed to her. When she gets to the city, she finds herself in the association of men who would like to keep the money for themselves. Lucky for her, the Sacketts who went before her made the kind of friends that last generation to generation and she meets up with 86 year old Finian Chantry. Chantry is a well known and liked lawyer who helps her to get what she is owed. I love this. When three men decide to rob Finian, he replies with this, “You’re a pack of bilge-swilling swine’ Chantry said. ‘I’ve money enough in my pockets to keep you drunk for a month of Sundays, but if you come for it, you’ll be wearing your guts for neckties.” Only Louis L’Amour would have an older gentlemen making threats like this. And then have the ability to back it up.

When Echo heads home with her money, she is followed by a group of men who wish to reclaim it. She leaves the stage behind and heads into the hills to have a bit of advantage. Finian, in fear of just such an arrangement, sends his grandson Dorian Chantry and another man named Archie out to escort her home. Before they are able to catch up, she proves that she is able to take care of herself, as all Sacketts can. When the boys join up with her, she feels the responsibility of them joining her group, and does her part in keeping everybody safe. I liked L’Amour’s representation of a girl. She was brave and strong, but she knew her limits and made up for them with the element of surprise, and a couple of well hidden weapons. But, she was also able to rely on Dorian and Archie when the need arose. At the end of the Sackett books, the hero always gets the girl. This book was no exception, except that this time the hero gets her man.