Wild West Week: “War Party” by Louis L’Amour

by Carol2 Comments
Image source: The Creative Mama I always associate Louis L'Amour with my grandfather. I can remember him reading his Westerns, and I think I may have even read a couple way back when. He is one of the great, and most well-known, western authors. "War Party" is probably one of L'Amour's best short stories. It has all the right ingredients: a teenage boy on the verge of becoming a man, a resourceful frontier woman, strong and beautiful, and a strong single man who appreciates her. And I love the description of the wide open, beautiful, untamed West. The prairie and sky had a way of trimming folks down to size, or changing them to giants to whom nothing seemed impossible. Bud, the young narrator, and his mom are the people who become the giants. They are part of a wagon train heading West, and when Bud's dad is killed, they keep going. They look at every challenge as something they can overcome. He is...
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Wild West Week: Have Gun, Will Play by Camille LaGuire

by Carol4 Comments
Have Gun, Will Play is the first full length mystery to feature Mick and Casey McKee. I have to tell you again how much I adore this couple of young gunslingers. Mick is the talker, adorable, and at times seems a little clueless. He and his wife Casey are hired after a shoot-out to protect the daughter of a stagecoach king and her bag of toys to a safe haven. Of course, it's not as easy a job as it seems. There's a botched kidnapping, a murder, Mick gets conked on the head, and somebody steals Casey's gun, definitely a bad move. The mystery's good. Plenty of twists and turns keep the plot moving. The dusty, dilapidated Old West feels real, and shoot-outs and heists seem natural. For me, though, Casey and Mick are the shining stars. I haven't met a mystery couple I've enjoyed this much since Tommy and Tuppence. We get to know Mick and Casey well in this story....
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Cooling Down with AC: Murder on the Orient Express

by Carol8 Comments
This is not the first time I've read Murder on the Orient Express, probably not even the second. I've always been a fan of Agatha Christie and devoured her Poirot books when I was probably in junior high, and have never really stopped reading them. The famous Orient Express is stopped in the middle of the night by a snowstorm and in the morning the millionaire Samuel Edward Ratchett is dead in his compartment, stabbed twelve times. One of the passengers must be the murderer. Hercule Poirot, who happens to be on the train, takes control of the investigation, sifting through lies and truths, clues and red herrings, to arrive at the solution. I remembered the ending, which is rather clever, and I do always enjoy Poirot denouncements, the way he takes the smallest clues and using his "little grey cells" solves the crime. This time through the characters caught my attention. Each is their own three-dimensional person, not merely another suspect....
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“Striking First”

by Carol4 Comments
Striking First 406 words She had managed to slice him with the knife, his thigh bleeding. "Shara," he grabbed her wrist. "Stop," he said calmly, quietly. She looked up into his deep brown eyes and stilled. She dropped the blade, sank to her knees and buried her head in her hands, her golden curls reaching the ground. "I thought..." He cut her off. "I know. He's gone." He couldn't blame her for her reaction. After all, Micah was his twin, nearly identical. In the soft evening light, she could easily have mistaken them, and after what Micah had done to her last time in he was in town, he couldn't blame her for her reaction. She had nearly died then, recovering had taken months, learning to trust again even longer. He was proud of her, actually, to have the courage to strike out as she had, not to cower in fear or hide in desperation. She was a fighter, a survivor. He would...
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Thursday’s Tale: Crocodile’s Treason

by Carol2 Comments
Image: News Real Blog Today's folktale comes from South Africa and takes place during the time when animals could still talk. The Crocodile is the leader of all the water animals, so when the river dries up, he comes up with a plan to trek to another river, one that the otter assures him still has water and will be able to withstand any drought. There are a couple of problems. First, traveling across dry land is dangerous for water creatures. Second, to get to the other river they have to pass by a Boer's farm. The Crocodile comes up with the solution. He offers peace to the lion and other veldt animals. In exchange for allowing the crocodile and his friends to cross without worrying about being eaten and to escort them pass the farm, the other animals will be allowed to drink from the river unmolested whenever they wish. The Crocodile sheds tears to show his sincerity, and the Lion...
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