Jubal Sackett

by Louis L’Amour Book 4 in the Sacketts series.

First published 1985

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4.6(3,067)

Set in seventeenth-century North America during the first generations of English colonial settlement, Jubal Sackett is a novel built around the pressures of its historical setting. Jubal Sackett, the second generation of Louis L'Amour's great American family pursues a destiny in the wilderness of a sprawling new land. Jubal Sackett's urge to explore drove him westward, and when a Natchez priest asks him to undertake a nearly impossible quest, Sackett ventures into the endless grassy plains the Indians call the Far Seeing Lands. He seeks a Natchez exploration party and its leader, Itchakomi. It is she who will rule her people when their aging chief dies, but first she must vanquish her rival, the arrogant warrior Kapata. Sackett's quest will bring him danger from an implacable enemy . . . and show him a life--and a woman--worth dying for.

The historical background is Early Colonial America. L’Amour uses practical details of travel, work, weather, weapons, distance and local authority to make the setting more than a backdrop. The result combines fast-moving adventure with a strong sense of how isolation, weak institutions and rapid economic change could shape individual choices.