Louis L'Amour_Hopalong Cassidy 04

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Hopalong Cassidy is one of the most enduring and popular heroes in frontier fiction. His legendary exploits in books, movies, and on television have blazed a mythic and unforgettable trail across the American West. Now, in the last of four Hopalong Cassidy novels written by Louis L'Amour, the immortal saddleman rides again—this time into a lonely valley of danger and death.Hopalong Cassidy has received an urgent message from the dead. Answering an urgent appeal for help from fellow cowpuncher Pete Melford, he rides in only to discover that his old friends has been murdered and the ranch Pete left to his niece, Cindy Blair, had vanished without a trace. Hopalong may have arrived too late to save Pete, but his sense of loyalty and honor demands that he find that cold-blooded killers and return to Cindy what is rightfully hers.Colonel Justin Tradwar, criminal kingpin of the town of Kachina, is the owner of the sprawling Box T ranch, and he has built his empire with a shrewd and ruthless determination. In search of Pete's killers and Cindy's ranch, Hopalong signs on at the Box T, promising to help get Tradway's wild cattle out of the rattler-infested brush. But in the land of mesquite and black chaparral, Cassidy confronts a mystery as hellish as it is haunting—a bloody trail that leads to the strange and forbidding Babylon plateau, to $60,000 in stolen gold, and to a showdown with an outlaw who has already cheated death once... and is determined to do it again.When Clarence E. Mulfold—the original Hopalong Cassidy—retired, he chose the young Louis L'Amour to carry on the Hopalong tradition in four classic novels, including The New York Times best-sellers The Rustlers of West Fork, The Trail to Seven Pines, and The Riders of High Rock. Long out of print and now published for the first time under the author's own name, Trouble Shooter is a vividly authentic tale of the Old West that bears the unmistakable Louis L'Amour brand of swift, sure action, hard-fought justice, and frontier courage. Capturing the unquenchable thirst for adventure, the passions that drove men, and the perils that awaited the, in an untamed new land, this extraordinary early novel gives us Louis L'Amour at the height of his powers—an enduring testament to America's favorite storyteller.From the Paperback edition.From Library JournalThe unknown L'Amour wrote this 1952 Hopalong Cassidy volume under the nom de plume Tex Burns after Hoppy's creator, Clarence E. Mulford, retired. L'Amour later added several more titles to the series before branching out under his own name.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From BooklistL'Amour's first published novel was long thought to be Hondo in 1953. But he also wrote, under the pseudonym Tex Burns, four Hopalong Cassidy novels after the creator of the character, Clarence E. Xulford, retired. This is the fourth of the group and is published here for the first time under L'Amour's name. Bill ("Hopalong") Cassidy is a drifter, a cowboy, and a gunman who always comes in on the side of the underdog--and the law, too, though if the law is wrong, he'll do what's right. He's tough, brave, and polite to the ladies; he never looks for a fight but has finished plenty. Here he comes to New Mexico to help an old friend, Pete Melford, but by the time Hoppy arrives, Melford is dead, and all traces of his ranch have vanished. Also looking for the ranch are Melford's niece, Cindy Blair, and her friend, Rig Taylor. Standing in their way is Colonel Treadway, owner of the huge Box T spread and the most powerful individual in the region. Other plot lines in this very busy novel involve Treadway's concealed outlaw past, another outlaw's attempt to go straight, and a mysterious cult of monks who reside in the nearby mountains. Though there's plenty of the Saturday matinee cliffhanger formula here, it also contains more than enough signature L'Amour to entertain the author's legion of fans. This isn't just a rediscovered curiosity; it's a pretty good western in its own right. Wes Lukowsky