Sophia Rose Reviews - Flint by Louis L’Amour, narrated by MacLeod Andrews

 

Flint by Louis L’Amour, narrated by MacLeod Andrews

Historical Fiction, Western

Publisher:  Penguin Random House Audio

Published:  4.25.23

Time:  6 hours 38 minutes

Rating: 5 stars

Format: Audio

Source:  Purchased

Sellers:  Amazon

ADD TO: GoodReads

 

GoodReads Synopsis:

A classic western from a #1 New York Times bestselling author and read by an Audie Award–winning narrator: Flint left the American west to escape a bloody past — but the east held danger too. Now, incurable illness sends him back to New Mexico — where his plans for a quiet end are disrupted by threats to a local rancher.

He left the West at the age of seventeen, leaving behind a rootless past and a bloody trail of violence. In the East he became one of the wealthiest financiers in America—and one of the most feared and hated.

Now, suffering from incurable cancer, he has come back to New Mexico to die alone. But when an all-out range war erupts, Flint chooses to help Nancy Kerrigan, a local rancher. A cold-eyed speculator is setting up the land swindle of a lifetime, and Buckdun, a notorious assassin, is there to back his play.

Flint alone can help Nancy save her ranch…with his cash, his connections—and his gun. He still has his legendary will to fight. All he needs is time, and that’s fast running out….

 

Sophia Rose's Review:

I’ve noted it in the past, but I’ll risk repeating myself, Louis L’Amour is one of the top Western Historical Fiction writers out there, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg of what he can write.  In the case of Flint, the reader comes for the western, but gets a romance and a mystery bonus.

 

Flint begins when a mysterious man slips off a train when it's slowing for a steep grade and he makes his way across the country.  He’s prepared the world for his disappearance.  He was a wealthy and powerful businessman, but now he wants to get away into the western vastness to die in peace. 

 

The man came a long way from a bedraggled, abandoned child shivering and hungry on a western town street.  A hired gunfighter took him up and got him a home and a school, then taught him much about the ways of the west, people, and guns before the man, Flint, was killed in an unfair gunfight.  Years later, as a man, the ‘kid at the crossing’ started small and ruthlessly ended up on top of the heap.  He was thought to have love and a family, but his beautiful wife married him for greed and then she was part of a plot to kill him.

 

Now that he’s dying of cancer, he comes back west, takes up his old mentor’s name, and hopes to be left alone.  Instead, this younger James Flint meets a poised and strong western woman in trouble when her ranch is part of a powerful man’s secret plans to gain more wealth and power.  Flint can’t walk away even if this is to be his last stand.  Suddenly, he doesn’t want to die and wishes he’d met Nancy Kerrigan long ago.

 

Flint is probably one of my all-time favorite Louis L’Amour stories.  I loved seeing Flint in action, spending time with him when he's alone out in the wild country, his time taming the wild horse herd and dreaming of Nancy, and of course, when he faced off against a large group of ruthless conniving villains including his wife.

 

MacLeod Andrews was a great match for this story and I loved how he voiced the cast of characters including both women.  His talent made a good story even richer for the hearing.

 

All in all, this was a fabulous adventure in the old American West that I can recommend.

 

Author Bio:

Louis Dearborn L'Amour was an American novelist and short story writer. His books consisted primarily of Western novels, though he called his work "frontier stories". His most widely known Western fiction works include Last of the Breed, Hondo, Shalako, and the Sackett series. L'Amour also wrote historical fiction (The Walking Drum), science fiction (The Haunted Mesa), non-fiction (Frontier), and poetry and short-story collections. Many of his stories were made into films. His books remain popular and most have gone through multiple printings. At the time of his death, almost all of his 105 existing works (89 novels, 14 short-story collections, and two full-length works of nonfiction) were still in print, and he was "one of the world's most popular writers".

Website:  https://louislamour.com/

Sophia’s Bio:

Sophia is a quiet though curious gal who dabbles in cooking, book reviewing, piano-playing, and gardening. Road trips and campouts, museums and monuments, restaurants and theaters are her jam. Encouraged and supported by an incredible man and loving family. A Northern Californian transplant to the Great Lakes Region of the US. Lover of Jane Austen, Baseball, Cats, Scooby Doo, and Chocolate.

As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing. Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener which allows her to experience so many wonderful books, authors, and narrators. Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance. Though, sorry, no horror or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/sophia.rose.7587

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GoodReads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13418187.Sophia_Rose