The High Graders

By Louis L'Amour

Book Overview

The story was that Eli Patterson had died in a gunfight, but Mike Shevlin knew it couldn't be true- the man who'd been like a father to him had been a Quaker. But when Shevlin rides back to Rafter Crossing to uncover the truth, he finds that the quiet ranching community has become a booming mining town. Newfound wealth has not made Rafter a peaceful place, however, and the smell of fear and greed is thick in the air. As Mike Shevlin tries to unravel the mystery of Patterson's death, he is led deeper and deeper into a conspiracy that controls not only the fate of Rafter Crossing but the heart of a beautiful but tormented young woman-and Shevlin's own destiny.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553278649
• ISBN13: 9780553278644
• Release Date: February 1989
• Publisher: Bantam
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 4.2" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

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"The town of Rafter Crossing wasn't just any town. It was a town built on deceit and theft, a town corrupted by its own greed, a town that had arrived at this point without realizing how deep were the depths into which it descended."-The beginning in Chapter 3, "The High Graders"-Mike Shevlin has after so many years returned to Rafter, only to find out that the only two people in the world who he really cared about, Eli Patterson and Jack Moorman, had been murdered. Not only that, Shevlin discovers that the cattle business there had deteriorated because of the mining going on. And not just had had the mining poisoned the range water, it had also poisoned the town with many people getting involved with high grading. Shevlin is hired by Laine Tennison, the rightful owner of one of the richest mines, to get her high-grade ore back. To do that he'll have to go against many of the most coldest and most ruthless people ever...Louis L'Amour uses a different style than what he usually uses in writing this book. "The High Graders" has a lot of mystery to it. Lots of different situations come up that don't seem to tie into the plot, or do they...? Also while reading the book you never really know if someone is the good guy or the bad guy. This book keeps you in high-tension suspense, especially the last half of the book where Shevlin is going to 'blow the lid off in this town'. "The High Graders" is a must read for all Louis L'Amour readers.