The Trail to Crazy Man

By: Louis L'Amour

Narrated by: Randal Schaffer

Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's Summary

The uncut, unrevised original text, as L'Amour intended it.

Rafe Caradec had been raised to a hard life in a hard land where death lurked behind every bush and in most men's eyes. Only his courage and his gun had sustained him. That and the unflinching honor that had earned him the respect of every man.

Now, that honor was about to lead him into deadly danger against the greatest odds he had ever faced. For Rafe had given his word to a dying man and could not go back on it. The man had been murdered by a cabal of greedy ranchers who wanted his land, and Rafe had sworn to protect that land for the man's wife and infant daughter.

But when he told her his story, the wife didn't believe him. She knew someone was after the ranch, and she thought it was Rafe. So she betrayed him into the hands of the very men who had killed her husband.

If Rafe Caradec lived, he would have to wage a one man range war against impossible odds, with a woman who wanted him dead waiting if he survived.

This edition is based on the original magazine version of this novel as Louis L'Amour first visualized it. Trail to Crazy Man was published in the July 1948 issue of the pulp magazine, West. Later, he lengthened the story for his book publishers and changed the title to Crossfire Trail. Some of his fans consider the novels as he wrote them for the magazines to be stronger than their subsequent expansions. L'Amour and other fans disagreed. Both camps agree that the original versions have all the strengths of his best writing and a taut, fast-moving pace that never stints on characterization.

Special introduction about L'Amour's pulp career and pulp novels.

©2014 Jean Marie Stine (P)2018 Jean Marie Stine

A new recording of a classic tale

I received a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I had been wanting to read a Louis L'Amour western for some time now and thought this would be a good opportunity. I did not enjoy it as much as I would have liked, unfortunately. There were a lot of characters and maybe a bit predictable at times. Throughout the story there were segments of fun and intrigue, but these were few and far in between.

One thing is for sure – it wasn’t easy living in the wild west! People got killed all the time with little remorse, apparently.

Audiobook narrator Randal Schaffer rating: 3 stars
I always appreciate a new recording of an old tale. There’s nothing worse than trying to listen to a classic book with a “classic” recording of the audio. Randal does a decent job of changing his voice for different characters, which is helpful during dialogue portions. Though, there are times when the consistency is just a little bit off. If this were improved some, it would be perfect! I know it’s hard to keep up with this kind of consistency when there are so many different characters.

Top notch!

Wonderful narration of a great story. L"amour is one of the best Western writers to ever put pen to paper and this story is a great example of that. Nobody could describe a knock down- drag out the way Louis could, he gives the reader a front row seat.

classic Louis L'Amour

I received the audiobook free in exchange for an honest review.



I jumped at the chance to review a Louis L'Amour audiobook. This was not a book I remember specifically reading in my formative years, although we were warned at the start that this was the original short story that L'Amour wrote. Rafe's name seems familiar though.



L'Amour's books have always been about strong men, and strong women; about taming the west, and the high seas. This book combines both.



Rafe Caradec was shanghai'd out of San Francisco and escapes the ship with a couple other men. He promised Charles Rodney he would protect the man's daughter, before Rodney was beaten to death. Rafe travels to the Painted Rock with two of the four men who escaped the ship with him, only to discover that Anne Rodney believed her father had died long before Rafe told her he had. She was engaged to a man who held the mortgage on the ranch her father owned ..... the mortgage that Charles Rodney had paid off before he was shanghai'd.



What follows is typical L'Amour fare .... Rafe trying to find out why the ranch was important, Anne certain he was there to take the ranch from her, and the bad men who were the ones who actually wanted the ranch. Of course, Anne eventually sees through her fiance's story, and his partner's duplicity, and comes to realize Rafe had the right of things. And Rafe, being Rafe, is true to his word about taking the man down.



The narrator's voice was matter of fact, there seemed to be the occasional hiccup with the recording of the audiobook, but only slightly. Very enjoyable.