This collection of short stories displays the author's range of genre, from a mining murder mystery to a pre-World War II exploit, to a western roundup adventure, and more. My two favorites were the first story about a young woman stranded in a remote South American village controlled by a brutal headman, and the last story about a woman living with a Mongolic tribe who faces a choice that will affect more than just herself. Most of the tales are good to very good, with a couple boxing yarns that I didn't care for. ( )

PLOT OR PREMISE:
A collection of ten short stories.
.
WHAT I LIKED:
"Crash Landing -- A great twist story, about a crashed plane and the man who takes charge to get everyone off before the plane slips off the edge of the snow-covered cliff.
.
Sideshow Champion -- A brawling boxer gets the championship fight of his life, but he knows the ones backing the champion are all crooked and will stop at nothing to bring him down. And he knows he has to get out of the limelight to train, so he goes back to the circus as a sideshow boxer to practice for the weeks before the fight.
.
The Money Punch -- Another boxing story about a kid who's up against the rackets and an ex-trainer who is more than a little crooked. Add in a missing new trainer, and the fact that he needs training -- he's got a great right but his left needs to be developed so he can be a better fighter. Oh, and he wants the girl who owns the fight farm.
.
Roundup in Texas -- A typical western story where cattle rustlers are lowering cattle estimates, and the foreman looks to be a chump who simply over-estimated. Gun battle at the end, and lots of story in a short timeframe.
.
Under the Hanging Wall -- A private-eye story about a man hired to go to a town and find out why his brother would have killed a mine owner. The Sheriff is no help, and there's a woman who belongs in the big city, not in a bus-stop town along the highway. Set in the early 20th century.
.
Other stories include: By the Waters of San Tadeo (town bully holds village hostage on island); Meeting at Falmouth (ambushing a travelling gentleman); and Beyond the Great Snow Mountains (woman taken prisoner in Chinese mountains by a tribe)."
.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
Two stories weren't that great -- Coast Patrol (WW II story about a freighter captured by Germans and an Allied pilot) and Gravel Pit (thief gets extorted and wants to kill the extortionist).
.
BOTTOM-LINE:
Decent but eclectic bunch of short-stories
.
DISCLOSURE:
I received no compensation, not even a free copy, in exchange for this review. I was not personal friends with the author, nor did I follow him on social media. ( )

A great collection of L'Amour's short stories. If your a fan you will not be supprised. If you have always wondered what makes him so great read these ther are several collections out there. ( )

Western

From Publishers Weekly Written in the 1940s and '50s, the 10 stories in this collection, none previously published in book form, come complete with curvy Hopper-like heroines "shaped to please" whose "eyes you could lose yourself in." The heroesAboxers, detectives and gunslinging cowboysAsleuth, shoot and slug their way valiantly through plots that seem like dress rehearsals for the full-blown L'Amour novels. Surprisingly, there is just one true western, a melodramatic horse opera loaded with cattle rustlers, gunfighters and hayseed dialogue. "Meeting at Falmouth," an unconvincing historical fiction, imagines a proud and tragic Benedict Arnold on a rainy night in 1794. "The Money Punch" and "Sideshow Champion" make prizefighting (an early occupation of L'Amour's) the theater for drama, suspense and moral conflict as ambition calls the loyalty and honesty of two young boxers into question. The collection's most successful story, "Under the Hanging Wall," is a clever whodunit with a chiseled gumshoe investigating a murder in a California mining town. Smart foreshadowing and snappy plotting reveal L'Amour to be a skilled mystery writer. Though not sophisticated psychologically, L'Amour's brassy women and dusty men keep the action of these cinematic stories hot. Entertaining and of interest to the devotees of L'Amour's 100-plus books, these adventure tales offer their share of the high drama L'Amour is famous for. Three more collections of yet-unpublished work will follow. (May) FYI: Louis L'Amour, who wrote 90 novels, was the only novelist to receive both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. There are more than 260 million copies of his books in print.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. From School Library Journal Grade 7 Up-Eight stories of adventure by Louis L'Amour.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. ( )