27 July 2013

The Iron Marshal by Louis L’Amour

The Iron Marshal 


by Louis L’Amour

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Bantam

Review of the book by Cashmere
The Iron Marshall is a slight departure from the usual Louis L’Amour in the fact that his hero is not a man from the wild west. He is a boy from fresh off the boat from Ireland who manages to get himself into a small frontier town in the wild west.

Tom Shanaghy is the son of a blacksmith who knows his father’s trade. A hard working family which falls on difficult times when the father becomes a farrier and joins the army as a horse-shoer and leaves for British India. He goes missing there and is presumed dead.

Tom’s mother then decides to leave for the new world of America to make a better fortune for her son and herself. However she passes away on the boat and young Tom reaches New York with no prospects and no help.

An accidental meeting with John Morrissey gets him a job and a way of life that he drifts into. Gang wars and survival are all a part of the day for him. And then one day in an effort to get away from some goons after his life he hops onto a train headed west.

He falls asleep in the empty railway car and then is woken rudely by who he presumes is a railway marshal. He is literally made to jump off the running train and lands smack in the middle of the wild west. The man throws a bundle after him thinking it to be his, but it is not.

He walks into the unknown land with a stranger’s backpack and a riffle. He saves a man from hanging and rides into his town with him. The town needs a marshal and he gets appointed. Then starts the trouble.

I wont spoil it for you. Its a good book.

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