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Clint Ryan #4
The Benicia Belle
Statehood has come to California, a rich young land of golden opportunity. Speculators, fortune hunters, roughnecks, and con men have come from every corner of the earth to stake a claim. And nowhere is the competition more cutthroat than on the riverboats plying the waters from San Francisco into the wide-open interior. Money flows in the direction of progress, and where there is money, there is sure to be greed, violence, and deceit. When former seaman John Clinton Ryan signs on as master-at-arms on the Benicia Belle, he finds he may have set his hand to his own death warrant. Blackmailed by the Belle's owner, and drawn to a woman as beautiful and as dangerous as the sea he left behind, Ryan sats off on a murderous new course. Framed for a crime he didn't commit, he has one last chance to exact a measure of justice and revenge...before his debt to the hangman comes due
- GenresWesterns
339 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 28, 2012
I Could Not Put This Book Down
This review is from: The Benicia Belle - Clint Ryan Series (Kindle Edition) ( http://www.amazon.com/The-Benicia-Bel... )
I normally do not read much fiction and I've never read Westerns, but this book was a game-changer for me. I've lived in California for only a few years and the fact that this book was set in the mid-1800s in the area near where I live drew me in. California then was a land of opportunity, but often there was misfortune. The characters and settings are well-developed and the story is a page-turner. I read the last ¾ of the book in one morning because I could not put it down. I'm hooked on the Clint Ryan character and will be downloading more books from the Clint Ryan series by L.J. Martin soon.
This review is from: The Benicia Belle - Clint Ryan Series (Kindle Edition) ( http://www.amazon.com/The-Benicia-Bel... )
I normally do not read much fiction and I've never read Westerns, but this book was a game-changer for me. I've lived in California for only a few years and the fact that this book was set in the mid-1800s in the area near where I live drew me in. California then was a land of opportunity, but often there was misfortune. The characters and settings are well-developed and the story is a page-turner. I read the last ¾ of the book in one morning because I could not put it down. I'm hooked on the Clint Ryan character and will be downloading more books from the Clint Ryan series by L.J. Martin soon.
November 9, 2012
The Benicia Belle. Another outstanding classic western by L. J. Martin
Highly recommend to all western and action adventure fans.
Highly recommend to all western and action adventure fans.
June 6, 2019
LJ Martin – Clint Ryan Western Bk 4 – The Benicia Belle – Reviewed 6/5/19
The water feels good but not the trouble or the treacherous woman…. Much less a black-hearted boss.
When an old friend asks El Lazo, Clint, to help them with his problems with the deeds to his land, he heads to the city to try to resolve the issue. When he is forced to take a position on a newly formed riverboat it feels good to have the water under his feet again. The unsavory are abound and all of the fortune hunters looking for an easy way to change their lives without the work to pay for it. Clint wants to get back to his ranch but he’s forced to finish what he has started.
What did I like? I was on a riverboat in Missouri and I have to admit that it was exciting. When it’s moving you feel the wheel turning and it’s like the water is alive. I am sure it’s nothing like sailing on the ocean visiting every port in the world but for a man like El Lazo, who cut his teeth on the sails of the big vessels it must have felt like visiting home.
What will you like? This series has grown so much since the first book, with the shipwreck, the revolution, the slave trading chinse girls and now riverboat cutthroats. Each book has more and more history from the era and the storyline is growing leaps and bounds. When people put their trust in you the pressure to accomplish your goals is unbelievable. The excitement and action continue to accelerate on every page. Well, there are two more books in series and I am on to “The Shadow of the Grizzly”.
The water feels good but not the trouble or the treacherous woman…. Much less a black-hearted boss.
When an old friend asks El Lazo, Clint, to help them with his problems with the deeds to his land, he heads to the city to try to resolve the issue. When he is forced to take a position on a newly formed riverboat it feels good to have the water under his feet again. The unsavory are abound and all of the fortune hunters looking for an easy way to change their lives without the work to pay for it. Clint wants to get back to his ranch but he’s forced to finish what he has started.
What did I like? I was on a riverboat in Missouri and I have to admit that it was exciting. When it’s moving you feel the wheel turning and it’s like the water is alive. I am sure it’s nothing like sailing on the ocean visiting every port in the world but for a man like El Lazo, who cut his teeth on the sails of the big vessels it must have felt like visiting home.
What will you like? This series has grown so much since the first book, with the shipwreck, the revolution, the slave trading chinse girls and now riverboat cutthroats. Each book has more and more history from the era and the storyline is growing leaps and bounds. When people put their trust in you the pressure to accomplish your goals is unbelievable. The excitement and action continue to accelerate on every page. Well, there are two more books in series and I am on to “The Shadow of the Grizzly”.
August 21, 2021
Another riveting story
They just keep getting better and better. I ordered the next in the series and can't wait to get into it.
They just keep getting better and better. I ordered the next in the series and can't wait to get into it.
November 16, 2021
Just like the others, a very good western read. I know it gets a little out there but I really do enjoy them. Love the characters and the stories.
February 9, 2013
First paragraphs
The rapid piercing cry of a victorious peregrine falcon cut the stillness. Clint lifted his eyes. Droplets flung from a water snake’s tail as it writhed spasmodically in the bird’s claws. A circle of ripples marked the spot in the quiet cattail-rimmed backwater there the raptor had snatched the snake, and the air reverberated with powerful wing beats as the bird lifted flailing reptile up and over the tules. Clint realized he had been dozing in the saddle as Diablo plodded along. Heat hung oppressively in the low valley and shimmered in the distance as mock pools of water, but the cool respite of the cottonwood-and-sycamore-shaded hacienda of Rancho del Rio Ancho lay only a few miles ahead – if the mosquitoes did not gnaw him down to the bone before he got there. Clint slapped at a particularly rapacious one on the back of his sun-reddened neck and laughed under his breath as he remembered Gideon’s advice when he had left him and the foothills and started down into the swampy valley floor. "Don’t worry," Gideon had said, "there’s not a single mosquito along the Sacramento. They’re all married with plenty of hungry young’uns." He had left
Martin, L. J. (2012-10-30). The Benicia Belle - Clint Ryan Series (Kindle Locations 77-94). Wolfpack Publishing. Kindle Edition.
The rapid piercing cry of a victorious peregrine falcon cut the stillness. Clint lifted his eyes. Droplets flung from a water snake’s tail as it writhed spasmodically in the bird’s claws. A circle of ripples marked the spot in the quiet cattail-rimmed backwater there the raptor had snatched the snake, and the air reverberated with powerful wing beats as the bird lifted flailing reptile up and over the tules. Clint realized he had been dozing in the saddle as Diablo plodded along. Heat hung oppressively in the low valley and shimmered in the distance as mock pools of water, but the cool respite of the cottonwood-and-sycamore-shaded hacienda of Rancho del Rio Ancho lay only a few miles ahead – if the mosquitoes did not gnaw him down to the bone before he got there. Clint slapped at a particularly rapacious one on the back of his sun-reddened neck and laughed under his breath as he remembered Gideon’s advice when he had left him and the foothills and started down into the swampy valley floor. "Don’t worry," Gideon had said, "there’s not a single mosquito along the Sacramento. They’re all married with plenty of hungry young’uns." He had left
Martin, L. J. (2012-10-30). The Benicia Belle - Clint Ryan Series (Kindle Locations 77-94). Wolfpack Publishing. Kindle Edition.
January 5, 2013
Main character Clint Ryan is trying to claim a piece of California for himself back when the west was a newly formed state and truly a bit wild. Ryan finds himself trying to do the right thing but always in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ryan is caught up between trying to purchase land for himself, helping a respected friend keep his land, in trouble with the law, repaying a debt, women and the occasional gun fight. Born and raised in Northern California I chuckled at the "Old Hangtown" reference to Placerville, CA and truly enjoyed the historical references to Sacramento, San Francisco, Monterey, etc. Loved the storyline, loved the well written characters, loved the history and loved the ending. Hard book to put down and highly recommended to all.
March 16, 2013
Another great read; exactly what I've come to expect from L.J. Martin!
March 20, 2013
Good story, but the narrator wasn't the best.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews