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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSWhen Major Mac Traven rides home to Texas after four years fighting for the Union, he stumbles on a mob about to hang a Confederate prisoner who turns out to be his own brother Dal. The two reunite and push south together, only to reach the family ranch and find it ransacked, their parents wounded, and their sister Gretchen, their younger brother Jesse, and Dal's sweetheart Kate Connery carried off by a renegade column of ex-Confederate soldiers led by the fanatical Colonel Ashford. With the help of their roguish uncle Happy Jack, Mac and Dal race south through coastal Texas, tracking Ashford toward the Gulf of Mexico where he plans to sell the captive women aboard a waiting ship.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Shadow Riders
SPOILERSEvery one of these has the same answer, and that is the point. In a real battle the question is read aloud with a dozen other books in play, and students have a few seconds to place it. Here is what a battle might ask about The Shadow Riders. Use them as a quiz, a trivia round, or BOTB practice.
Where in the book they come from
- Early in the book
In what book does a small girl behind a blanket curtain ask a stranger, "Are you my daddy?"
✓ Answer
The Shadow Riders by Louis L'Amour
When Mac Traven pulls back the blanket curtain in the abandoned cabin, eight-year-old Susan Atherton asks if he is the father she barely remembers. Her father is actually dead, killed by a sharpshooter on the last day of the Civil War.
- First half
In what book does a colonel quietly imagine landing at Charleston or Newport News with a recruited army?
✓ Answer
The Shadow Riders by Louis L'Amour
Ashford broods on alternatives to his Mexico plan, dreaming of British ships transporting a Confederate army to the East coast. He believes others will flock to his banner and the disbanded Union Army will have no chance to gather forces against him.
- First half
In what book does a wounded captive escape from a kidnapper's wagon during a Gulf Coast storm?
✓ Answer
The Shadow Riders by Louis L'Amour
Jesse Traven slips out the back of the wagon during the first fury of a coastal storm. The driving rain, thunder, and wind give him cover as he plunges into the forest to find his brothers.
- Second half
In what book does a stalker step on a buried branch that snaps and warns his target?
✓ Answer
The Shadow Riders by Louis L'Amour
Sam Hall stalks Mac in the brush near the beach camp and steps onto a buried branch. The snap warns Mac, who whips around like a cat and shoots Sam through the chest before the renegade can fire.
- Second half
In what book is a fast schooner kept anchored in a bay, named after an old sea ballad?
✓ Answer
The Shadow Riders by Louis L'Amour
Martin Connery keeps the eight-gun schooner Golden Vanity ready in Mission Bay as his way out of any trouble. The name echoes an old sea ballad, and he knows no ship in American waters can outsail her.
- Near the end
In what book does a renegade shoot dead the horse a woman is walking toward on the sand?
✓ Answer
The Shadow Riders by Louis L'Amour
Frank shoots the horse Kate is approaching, blocking her escape on the empty beach. He then grabs whiskey bottles from the wagon for himself and the other renegades as Ashford watches helplessly.
