As far as the eye could see was a vast, empty horizon. Evie Teale had finally accepted that her husband wouldn’t be coming home. Now she and the children were alone in an untamed country where the elements, Indians, and thieves made it far easier to die than to live.
Miles away, another solitary soul battled for survival. Conagher was a lean, dark-eyed drifter who wasn’t about to let a gang of … gang of rustlers push him around. While searching the isolated canyons for missing cattle, he found notes tied to tumbleweeds rolling with the wind. The bleak, spare words echoed Conagher’s own whispered prayers for companionship. Who was this mysterious woman on the other side of the wind? For Conagher, staying alive long enough to find her wasn’t going to be easy.
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This is a Western novel with a romance subplot. The story is about a lonely woman settler and a cowboy drifter in post-Civil War New Mexico.
L’Amour’s book is a fine Western, obviously written by a man who knew his genre and milieu well. He was a prize fighter, so the fight scenes are quite realistic.
Some might believe that a Louis L’Amour story is all gritty men, gunfighter action, and tough plots in well-drawn western or adventure setting. And, to an extent they would be right because those elements are very much present. But, sprinkled through his stories is romance to one degree or another. L’Amour wrote his women as courageous and capable as his men and once in a while he gives them a prominent role and a pioneer romance. Conagher is one of those stories.
Evie Teale comes west from Ohio with her husband and his children. She wasn’t in favor of chucking their old life and the trappings of civilization, but this is their chance. She bites her tongue on criticizing the simple one-room cabin with the dirt floor sitting out on a wide-open dry land far from anyone. Instead, while Jacob goes to buy cattle, she and the children get busy making something of their new circumstances. Meanwhile, Jacob becomes one of the lone men claimed by the hard western prairie and his family doesn’t know what has become of him. Evie worries over how they are going to survive as they adapt to living on the western frontier. From hostile Apaches, feeding the stagecoach passengers and staff, encountering a would-be gunfighter, harsh winter, rustlers, and one hard-bitten cowboy who makes her curious and not give up on the chance of love.
Conagher is a man who doesn’t suffer fools, back down, and does a hard days work for a hard day’s pay. He’s never known home or family and has spent his life drifting from job to job and place to place. But, what gets him twitchy are the romantic and poetic notes tied to tumble weeds by some lonely woman to the north. He’s no woman’s idea of a knight in shining armor, but he sure wishes he could be.
The narration switches back and forth between Evie and Con. Both their sides of the story are exciting in their own way. Evie’s is about survival and learning she’s tougher than she thought she was as she faces everything thrown at her. Conagher’s side has the fistfights, range battles, and lonely cowboy ponderings that keep leading him back to the Teale place and Evie. I liked both characters and it was easy to root for them to find their way to each other while beating the troubles that faced them separately.
The western setting and situation was well drawn and I enjoyed the colorful characters that peopled the story. A lot of the characters, but particularly those who did bad things weren’t all one or the other. And, yes, there is some gritty ‘shoot ’em up’ action.
Jason Culp did the narration and I’ve enjoyed his work on previous L’Amour books. He does a great job though he gets a tad nasally and breathy with female voices. He narrates the quiet, sweeping moments and the intense fight scenes equally well and I’m happy to pick up more of his work.
All in all, I was well pleased to have a strong heroine to pair the hero and some great western setting and action.
Sam Elliot made a movie based on this book.