Riding for the Sackett brand

Louis L'Amour is one of the most realistic authors ever published. His descriptions of the country traveled in each book make you feel like you're in the middle of the desert, or high on a mountain, or wherever the travels are. And the personalities of his characters cover all kinds of people, so you understand exactly what they're thinking and feeling in the moment.

There are a couple of ways to read his series on the Sackett family. You can read them in chronological order, or in the order that L'Amour wrote them. I chose the order he wrote them because I love our U.S. West, but whatever way you choose will be the right one for you.

L'Amour started with a few members of the Sacketts that lived in Tennessee and decided to move westward. The first book he wrote in the series was "The Daybreakers." Tyrel, Orrin, and Tell are three brothers born and raised in Tennessee. Long Higgins, whose family has been feuding with the Sacketts for years, shows up at Orrin's wedding determined to murder Orrin. Orrin's future wife Mary sees Higgins and shoves Orrin aside, but she gets killed by the shot. Tye steps in to save his brother by calling out Higgins and killing him in a fair shooting.

Since the law in that area was kin to the Sacketts, Tye doesn't want to put one of his relatives in the middle of what could be a feud with others. Tye heads home and lets Ma know what happened. She immediately tells him to take their best horse and head west to find "a place with deep, rich soil and a mite of game in the hills" for the family to move to. Tye's Pa had been a "wandering and knowing man, never to home long" and Ma had been "talking up the west" ever since Pa died. She knows it's the right time to get started.

By the time Tye gets to Texas, he's out of money and food, but rides up to the fire of a group of riders who are moving a huge herd of cattle. Since he's still in his patched, homespun clothes and farmer boots, they assume he's not prepared for the west and the way they do business. Little do they know - but will soon find out - he's the fastest man with a gun that ever sat around that fire - and most other fires. Within a couple of hours, Orrin rides up and that's the start of the Sackett saga.

L'Amour has great descriptions of the west as the cattle herd continues on through Texas, Kansas, and beyond. Every book opens up more of the West. As Tye put it, "Suddenly something happened to me, and it happened to Orrin too. The world had burst wide open, and where our narrow valleys had been, our hog-backed ridges, our huddled towns and villages, there was now a world without end or limit."

The men they meet at that first fire, and many more men and women they meet in "The Daybreakers," will continue to be a big part of their lives - most will make a positive impact, but many are just bad people.

Tell Sackett is in the second book - titled appropriately "Sackett" - and many other relatives will be showing up later. Some of the future books backtrack the Sackett Family from England in the 1500s, through Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee in the 1600s – 1700s, to New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado in the 1800s.

One of the main things I love about the Sackett series is that the bad guys never win the final fight. The Sacketts are always ready to defend family, friends, and honest people in need of help. Although many want to see what's over the next hill, all of them are hard workers at any job they take on.

L'Amour wrote more than 80 incredible novels, so when you're done with the Sacketts, you have plenty to keep adding to your reading list. Make your list and get going on your great escape.

"For one who reads, there is no limit to the number of lives that may be lived, for fiction, biography, and history offer an inexhaustible number of lives in many parts of the world, in all periods of time."

- Louis L'Amour