The High Graders

by Louis L'Amour

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 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.

Genres: Westerns, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Adventure, Audiobook, Action, Historical

240 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

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".

Reviews

[GoldGato]

Here is a Western that’s a revenge tale but ends up being so much more than just that. It’s about corruption and how power and money can buy the honesty of local citizens, so that it takes an outsider to return to make things good. But because it’s L’Amour, there’s more grey than black and white, so that even the bad dudes have something going for them. Hard men for hard times.

He knew too little of what was going on here. He felt that he was like a blind man in a strange room filled with objects unfamiliar to him, whose design had no meaning for him.

Mike Shevlin rides into Rafter Crossing, a town where even the Sheriff is not to be fully trusted. On the way in, Shevlin has stopped at Boot Hill where he finds the tombstone of the one man he admired, an elderly Quaker who was shot to death. It’s all puzzling for our hero. How could a peace-loving citizen be gunned down and why hasn’t the Sheriff taken any action? There’s money involved. The local mines have high-grade ore but the mining has poisoned the water, so the ranchers have trouble watering their herds. Someone is pitting group against group, but who can it be? Shevlin will find out or die trying.

He was alone, as he had always been alone. And he would die alone, die somewhere up a canyon, when his shells ran out, or his canteen was empty and his horse dead.

Once again, I became involved with L’Amour’s writing, even though this isn’t one of his stronger works. There are many characters and some appear quickly and then leave altogether. But I still enjoyed the read because the author always makes sure the story’s hero has the qualities that defined the myth of the Old West. Shevlin is not to be messed with, as he will cut his wolf loose if anyone gets in his way. I would read a little bit at a time, so the book didn’t end too quickly. That’s a good read for me.

Book Season = Summer (sweltering mesas)

[Carol Bakker]

Road trip read. I could be all snobby, and make it clear this was my husband's pick. However, with each L'Amour book I read, my appreciation for his writing grows.

In the same way I enjoy the Britishisms of the cozy English novel, L'Amour offers western aphorisms and axioms that delight the ear. I can't remember even one (the down side of audio).

[Rush]

Αυτό είναι το πρώτο βιβλίο του Λουίς Λ'Αμούρ που διαβάζω και πραγματικά το απόλαυσα. Στο βιβλίο αυτό ο Μάικ Σέλβιν επιστρέφει στην πόλη Ράφτερ Κρόσινγκ για να μάθει τι πραγματικά συνέβη με τον θάνατο του Ηλάι Πάτερσον ενός άντρα που στο παρελθόν τον βοήθησε πολύ, ωστόσο αντί για την ήσυχη πόλη των κτηνοτρόφων που γνώριζε ανακαλύπτει μια πόλη στην οποία όλα γυρίζουν γύρω από την εξόρυξη χρυσού.

Από το σημείο της άφιξης του Μάικ Σέλβιν ξεκινάει όλη η περιπέτεια, έχουμε να κάνουμε με μια ιστορία εκδίκησης η οποία έχει πολύ ενδιαφέρον μιας και το μυστήριο δεν λείπει σε όλη την εξέλιξη της. Μου άρεσε πολύ η ανάπτυξη των χαρακτήρων ιδιαίτερα του πρωταγωνιστή Μάικ Σέλβιν οπού με τις διάφορες αναδρομές στο παρελθόν μαθαίνεις διάφορα γεγονότα και δένεσαι μαζί του.

Η δράση δεν λείπει και η περιγραφή κάποιων σκηνών σε κρατάει στην τσίτα, με λίγα λόγια θα έλεγα ότι πρόκειται για ένα γουέστερν το οποίο θα απολαύσουν οι λάτρεις του είδους και όχι μόνο. Επίσης μου άρεσε πολύ και το γλυκόπικρο τέλος της ιστορίας.

[Ben Donovan]

I would have died so quickly on the frontier. Would probably just have been shot by someone tired of hearing me speak. Anyways, he’s a good story teller, even if the story has some holes

[Jason]

Convoluted for a Western - probably because L'Amour tried to put too much murder-mystery into it, and as such had to use much too large of a cast of characters, most of which weren't fleshed out enough to care much. Also didn't work well because it was pretty easy to see whodunnit halfway through the book.

[Kirk]

This is only my second western, and I read both this year, but judging from the other reviews I read, I wasn’t alone in feeling like there were TOO MANY DAMNED CHARACTERS in this book to deal with. Luckily, only a handful are important. But they are all treated like they are significant upon introduction, and it seems like L’amour was going through some growing pains writing this one, maybe trying to write a mystery as others have hypothesized.

It gave the impression that this was a sequel and I somehow missed the importance of all of the characters because I hadn’t read the previous novel. But I think this is a one-off, so I don’t know what the deal was.

So why four stars? I really like this genre. I like the setting. I like the ideas about tracking. I like the lingo. I’m learning shit, and it is fun to learn things without it feeling like I’m learning.

It is nice to see the shreds of honor diminishing in the west, being replaced by law (kind of a chicken or the egg situation. Did law replace honor or did honor diminishing necessitate law?)

There is a lot of isolation in this book. The protagonist spends a lot of time by himself. There’s something peaceful about that.

Anyway, I’m going to give a few of his best a shot. Maybe my rating will change over time, but right now this was a good western, despite its flaws. And the call back in that final line was pretty sweet.

[Rebekah S]

Listen, I know every Louis L’amour is formulaic and cheesy, but dang it they feel like a broken in sweater. I have my grandmothers entire collection, and when I need a break from heavy literature and/or life, I grab one of these. For three hours I’m curled up in her scratchy, brown reupholstered chair at the top of the steps next to the bookshelf of dime westerns and all is well with the world.

[Fredrick Danysh]

When his foster father is killed, Mike Shevlin finds a mining community where the old man had lived. As he investigates the death, he finds a deep and wide spread conspiracy. A nice Western tale without excessive sex or profanity from a master of the western.

[Faith]

At first, I didn't care for the narrator, but then I started enjoying the book too much to care. Very well done almost mystery. I never knew how it would turn out.

[Steve Scott]

This has to be one of the worst L’Amour had ever written.

There are way too many characters, and a convoluted plot with multiple weak points. So many characters have spurious loyalties and so many die that one would think it was Hamlet. We’re introduced to a stalwart sheriff at the beginning who inexplicably disappears before the final showdown. The number of folksy western one-liners designed to show a man’s measure or wisdom are laughable.

There is an almost poignant end to the work, which doesn’t land because of the overall weakness of the story.

I’m surprised he released this for publication.

[Bob Hernandez]

Liked the book Louis Lamour short stories are the best> He always put a lot of detail in his storys and characters that most writer leave out. This makes the book more realistic and interesting Like you can see and hear the heroes, and bad hombres in the story line.

[Cynthia]

Whew! This was a tough one for me to finish! So far, all the LL books I've read have kept me very interested until the end. I had to force myself to pick this one up again to finish it and even then, I skipped some description paragraphs just to get to the end of the book, concentrating on the dialogue between characters. There were quite a few characters in this book to keep track of. Midway through the story, I had to stop and remind myself which character was who and even had to backtrack once to get it straight in my noggin!!! I'm wondering if Mr. L'Amour was on a deadline when he wrote this story.

[James]

This was definitely one of L'Amour's earlier novels and it had a lot of poor choices by the main characters. It read more like a dime novel than some of his later works. It isn't the worst book I've read, but it's definitely not one of the better ones.

[Melody]

first l’amour story that I didn’t care for

[West Craft]

After a half million dollars in high grade gold goes missing from a local mining operation, Mike Shelvin is hired to find out where the gold is and who is responsible for his best friend's death. High Graders had all of the makings of a 5/5 western for me, but unfortunately there were a few major flaws that held it back from high marks.

High points first: The setting is fantastic. Old west mining town that's transitioning from cattle to gold is a great concept. L'Amour's descriptions of the old west, the rugged terrain, and the mines place you right there alongside Mike Shelvin. There is also a lot of character conflict and action as well. Sneaking, gunfights, assassinations, double-crossing- it's a wonderfully fun read. The main characters are a bit one-dimensional, but they're not as cookie-cutter as some pulp westerns.

So, why the 3 stars? Namely, this novel was more difficult to read than it should have been. L'Amour's writing style just didn't click with me. He kind of jumps around from place to place and person to person within a couple of paragraphs so it makes a simple plot hard to follow. The side characters (and there are TONS of them) are also incredibly one-dimensional (looking at you Laine). Finally, the central plot that started the novel (who killed Eli) is sidelined nearly the entire novel and then the big reveal is one sentence, in passing, towards the end of the novel. No drama, no big crescendo or conflict. It's just an "oh by the way I killed Eli, no big deal" and that was the end of it.

So, yeah. I love the old west, and mining towns in particular... but this one was just average. It's honestly worth a read if the plot interests you, but the novel could have been better.

[wally]

finished 5th march 2025 good read three stars i liked it nothing less nothing more kindle library loaner and i'm maybe one shy of three dozen (out of over a hundred) from l'amour. entertaining story as they all are. saw that some readers complained about a multitude of characters. there are many characters...shevlin...the man who drifts into town...there's hollister and associates cattle people being eliminated or run off by miners...or thieves who are cloaked in miners' clothing, several biggies as they say on wall street, and their associates...several women...a number of people from each side who knew shevlin way back when.

and i've been reading l'amour to the exclusion of all others...last...dozen? give or take from l'amour and with over a hundred stories to his name a reader can find enough variation to argue against the idea they are all the same...an argument i made. and too, if one reads them with the idea of comparing them to the present day...the various conflicts...one can find the same story taking place today.

[Nate Mitsch]

This is my first Louis L'amour novel, and my first western story in fact. I found this book for 3 dollars at a used book store and thought I'd give westerns a try.

This is a well thought out, fast paced story that kept me engaged through the whole book.

The one major downfall for me was the fact that every character in the story was introduced, and made the reader to believe they were more important of a character then they really were.and this was a pretty major downfall.
Too many characters with too little of a part in the story. I constantly found myself going back in the story to remind myself of who was who, and who did what to get where we are.

Other than that, it is a decent book. I think I will really enjoy westerns so I am now picking up a bunch of L'Amour novels and see if I can find some better novels in the genre.

[Jake H]

I’d say that this is your run of the mill Louis L’moure western. The story flowed well and LL puts you in the location of Raferty, the county that this story takes place. It’s tough to really build up characters in a novel that’s only 230 pages or so. The main protagonist, Mike Shevlin, is tough, intelligent, full of integrity, but I never really found out how or why. He would turn down a million dollars to do the right thing, but to me that’s kind of cheap. I’d like to know how he became this man. There’s really nothing “bad” about this book, I just wasn’t yearning to be with the characters when I was away from the book, which is something I look forward to when I read. I would put 2.5 if that was an option, but 3 stars it is..

[Axolotl]

I liked this story, but not as much as the Trail to Peach Meadow Canyon or Showdown Trail. It still had a lot of things going on that caught my interest, but I found it pretty easy to put the book down for long stretches of time. But that may just be my attention span not being as good as it could be. And I kinda wish L'Amour had gone more in depth with Shelvin's backstory, but I also understand that this way he's more mysterious, which is fun too.

Not really spoilers, but this is a comment from the very end of the book, so I'm putting a warning anyway:
I don't know why Laine is described as not having 'much to live for' after discovering her grandson was an adman on Madison Avenue. Like, he's in advertising...why would that make you 'waste away', as it says?

[Randy Tramp]

Mike Shevlin didn't believe Eli Patterson had died in a gunfight. He rides to Rafter Crossing to uncover the truth but finds a conspiracy.

One of the reasons I like L'Amour's book is because of the honorable characters. Good versus evil. No middle ground.

Mike wanted the truth and would die if necessary to obtain it. His friend deserved the truth, even if he was in the ground.

The lawless west needed good characters to shape it. Shevlin was one of the good guys.

This story went deeper into the thoughts of the character compared to other L'Amour books. It was a little more difficult to read, but that made it better.

[Dorothy]

Mike Shevlin had been gone from Rafter Crossing for many years until he heard that his "father" figure, Eli Patterson, had been killed in a shoot-out on the street. He knew something was amiss since Eli was a Quaker and didn't ever carry a gun. He returns to find out the truth of what really happened. Then upon his return he finds out that rather than the peaceful cattleman's town its now a mining town with many more problems. The miners are high grading the gold from the mines and the miners are polluting the water for the cattlemen. So there is a big gap and many angry people. Of course there are a couple of ladies mixed into the story also.

[Marsh "Bad Sci Fi" Bloom]

This book needed one more full edit to really shine. Some sections just fully flow and others (often when L'Amour is changing POV) are clumsy and confusing. It also relies too much on coincidence especially people just happening to remember something at a key moment, or luckily making the right assumption, which with the omniscient narrator, is even more awkwardly explained in the text than it would be in 3rd person.

First attempt at a L'Amour. It was a short, pleasant read so probably will try another one before giving up entirely.

[Amanda Eiden]

this was the May read from my Louis L’Amour calendar

there are way too many characters, the perspectives are shifting too much, and we’re walking right into the middle of the battle of the town figuring out their balance of new mining that’s pushing out cattlemen while some of the mining workers are stealing product

i think it was an okay concept, but the execution was pretty awful. and in certain scenes, i had no idea what was going on—most notably, the very end of the story, which was a huge let down

[John Reis]

Mike Shevlin has returned to Rafter Crossing to find the killer of an old friend. He finds the town is doing well and soon learns why. Ben Stowe runs a gold mining operation which produces no gold for its owners but pays the townspeople for their silence.

The absentee owner, Laine Tennison, has come to town quietly to learn what is going on. She hires Mike to carry on an investigation and to find the gold.

This was confusing and the first 100 pages were boring. It did pick up, though.

[Trebor]

One thing I really like about Louis L'Amour is straight ahead writing style. He uses just enough words to say what he wants and doesn't waste your time with wordy and tedious fluff and transgressions. This book is a typical western in many respects, but the plot is rather intricate and without any huge holes and convenient coincidences, although there are a few. Basically a good old western yarn!

[Richard]

One of the Best

This is another one of LL's best. A bit more of a mystery Western than purely Western, it has very little cow- or man-punching, but plenty of gunplay, action, intrigue and a little romance. The ending is an interesting take on the transition into the modern world from the old West, and it reminds one of the many tales of ghost towns and ruins that still exist in the Western US. Highly recommended.

[James]

This is what most people think of when they stereotype L'Amour's novels. Tough guy comes to town to right a wrong (murdered father figure) ends up finding and fighting corruption, which of course ends in a shoot out. Guy gets girl and everybody lives happily ever after.

My guess is it's a late '50s novel for a screen script treatment or the reverse. Still he's a professional writer who knew how to keep readers flipping the pages.

[Baxter]

The High Graders is a great Wild West read, though it starts off slowly. There are many characters and many of them receive only a brief introduction. This makes the first few chapters a little slow due to trying to keep track of everything. After that though the pace picks up and becomes an exciting race against time to stop the bad guys including mineshaft investigations, secret mountain pass trail rides, and a rail station showdown.

[Steve Curry]

A typical L'Amour.

Louis L'amour wrote dozens of westerns and historical fiction novels as well as a few shamanistic and more modern pieces. His worst works were a pleasure to read while his best writing was breathtaking. This book fits solidly in the middle. The story was good. The characters seem well defined without being complex. It was entertaining and enjoyable.

[Jay Wright]

A highgrader is a miner that steals that which he is mining. Young women hires a cowboy to recover her gold. The whole town is in on it. Cowboy wants to clear the name of his childhood mentor. L'Amour does not fully develop the land as a character in this book. It is still interesting and the characters are good. It is a three star book with a 5 star ending. I simply love the ending.