Book summary
Trama e riassunto di Mani in alto: trentacinque anni di vita da detective tra le montagne e le pianure
- 8 min di lettura
- 10 key ideas
- Audio a breve
A buried fortune, a lynch mob and outlaws await a frontier detective who shoots with his left hand.
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Mani in alto: trentacinque anni di vita da detective tra le montagne e le pianure in breve
Riassunto: 8 min di lettura
- Tempo di lettura
- Circa 8 h 5 min6 h 25 min fast, 9 h 40 min slow
- Durata
- 115.800 parole
- Livello nella biblioteca
- Medio longer sentences, everyday words
- Prima pubblicazione
- 1897by D. J. Cook
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Quanto tempo ci vuole per leggere i classici · Aggiornato
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Mani in alto: trentacinque anni di vita da detective tra le montagne e le pianure in short
Hands Up is a collection of true cases told by the man who led many of them. It starts with Confederate raiders in 1864 and moves through stage robbers, horse thieves, murderers, swindlers and train wreckers. What you keep is a view of how frontier law worked.
What Mani in alto: trentacinque anni di vita da detective tra le montagne e le pianure is about
A dying outlaw draws a map in gunpowder ink on the back of an old letter. It marks sixty thousand dollars buried in a Colorado mountain, and the man who receives it never finds the spot. That is how Hands Up opens.
D. J. Cook, known as General Cook, led the Rocky Mountain Detective Association. He had served as city marshal of Denver and sheriff of Arapahoe County, and by his own count he chased outlaws across mountains and plains for thirty-five years. You get his cases and those of his men, told in plain style, with stage robbers, train wreckers, killers and crowds that took the law into their own hands.
A chi è rivolto. Readers who love true tales of the Old West, from stagecoach holdups to manhunts won by nerve and cunning. It also suits anyone curious about frontier Colorado and early detective work.
The 10 key ideas
Key idea 1 · free to read
Rebel raiders ride north and lose everything
The book begins with John Reynolds, who dies in a dugout near Taos in 1871 and gives his partner Albert Brown directions to a hidden treasure. To explain the money, Cook goes back to 1864. James Reynolds, a Confederate irregular, leads a small band from northern Texas toward Denver. He dreams of burning the town.
On the Santa Fe Trail the gang captures a wagon train and takes about forty thousand dollars. Fourteen men leave in anger. The rest reach the goldfields and find no recruits. They rob a coach in South Park and boast of a Confederate army behind them. The claim is false, but it spreads alarm across the mining camps.
Posses form and troops guard the roads. Reynolds buries much of the loot, and miners fire on the outlaws from behind rocks. Most are caught, and the driver they once robbed ends up guarding them. Brown joins three searches, and the treasure stays hidden. A plan built on bluff and greed ends in ruin.
- 2Start free to read
Strategy and nerve win more arrests than guns
Frank Hyatt of Alamosa shows a different style of lawman.
- 3Start free to read
A shocking murder is solved by patient pursuit
In October 1875 neighbors on Lawrence Street in Denver follow a smell to an empty house.
- 4Start free to read
Denver turns from the courts to the rope
Denver in 1868 fills with horse thieves and gunmen.
- 5Start free to read
Reading people solves cases faster than clues
Cook trusts his memory for faces and his knowledge of crooks.
- 6Start free to read
A farmer's disappearance ends in a long chase
In September 1879 Joseph Seminole and Tom Johnson hire R. B. Hayward, a farmer near Golden, to drive them to a cattle camp.
- 7Start free to read
One killer's crimes outlast his prison terms
In September 1871 two herders, George Witherill and E. E. Wight, kill their quiet neighbor L. K. Wall for his sheep and the gold they imagine he hides.
- 8Start free to read
Lawmen guard railroads and break up outlaw towns
In 1878 a gang of road agents plans to wreck a Union Pacific passenger train at the Medicine Bow bridge.
- 9Start free to read
Pursuits across half a continent test endurance
Cook's cases often turn into journeys.
- 10Start free to read
Cook keeps the peace when crowds and strikes boil over
Cook's last cases show him as a keeper of order as well as a hunter.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Questions about Mani in alto: trentacinque anni di vita da detective tra le montagne e le pianure
What is Hands Up by D. J. Cook about?
It is a collection of true crime stories from the Colorado frontier and the surrounding territories. General Cook and his detectives track stage robbers, horse thieves, murderers and swindlers, and the chapters cover capture, trial and the fates of the criminals.
Who was General D. J. Cook?
David J. Cook led the Rocky Mountain Detective Association and served as Denver city marshal and Arapahoe County sheriff. He died in 1907. He was known for tracking fugitives across several states and for keeping prisoners safe from mobs.
What was the Rocky Mountain Detective Association?
It was a private network of detectives led by Cook, with agents in towns across Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Nebraska and beyond. Banks, railroads and local officials hired it to catch criminals, and it relied on telegraph messages to share descriptions.
Are the stories in Hands Up true?
The book presents them as true cases from about 1864 to the 1890s, told by Cook and drawn from his files, newspapers and the accounts of his officers. The narrator is a participant, so the stories reflect his own point of view.
Is Hands Up easy to read?
No, many cases continue across several chapters, following investigation, capture and the criminals’ eventual fates in plain, lively language. You can start at any chapter. Headlines at the top of each chapter outline what happens, so it is simple to follow.
Cita questa edizione
Cook, D. J. Hands Up: Thirty-Five Years of Detective Life in the Mountains and on the Plains. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/hands-up-thirty-five-years-of-detective-life-in-the-mountains-and-on-the-plains.
Cook, D. J. (2026). Hands up: Thirty-five years of detective life in the mountains and on the plains. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/hands-up-thirty-five-years-of-detective-life-in-the-mountains-and-on-the-plains (Original work published 1897)
Cook, D. J. Hands Up: Thirty-Five Years of Detective Life in the Mountains and on the Plains. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/hands-up-thirty-five-years-of-detective-life-in-the-mountains-and-on-the-plains.
@book{cook2026hands,
author = {Cook, D. J.},
title = {Hands Up: Thirty-Five Years of Detective Life in the Mountains and on the Plains},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/hands-up-thirty-five-years-of-detective-life-in-the-mountains-and-on-the-plains},
note = {First published 1897}
}
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