Review: Die with the Outlaws - 5 star

One of the best known names in writings in the westerns by William Johnstone is Jensen.  In this case it is Matt who is the star of the book, Die with the Outlaws; he is a drifter who travels to various places where there is a need for someone to act and ends up helping folks live better lives, . The storyline of the book is not exactly the norm,  although there are parts that are found in almost every western novel.  There are certainly good guys and bad ones.  But here we have a person of color being introduced into the western story.  This was not at all unheard of to find a black man in the west but is a bit unusual in books of this genre and time.  This man is named Isaac and to add some intrigue, he was trained as a lawyer but basically prejudice prevents him from practicing.  He will play a pivotal role in setting things right.

The good guys in this story are ranchers in a valley in Sweetwater, Wyoming that is being harassed by two wealthy and influential men.  Their sole purpose seems to be to take over the entire valley and drive out, through any means the rest of the ranchers and farmers in the area.  This includes murder, even though they would not deign to get their hands dirty with that business.  Through a series of calamities that causes several of the valley inhabitants to leave, the one man and his wife are faced with some difficult decisions as their horses are being rustled.  The sheriff is not a bad man but is cowed by the two powerful men to the extent that he has deputized a gang of ruffians called the Regulators to enforce the peace. These are a bunch of ne’er-do-wells led by a disgraced former policeman from Missouri. 

A letter to a sister leads to a good friend who contacts Matt Jensen for help.  Jensen is a really fast gunman but one who uses his skill and speed for good, unlike some gunfighters of the day.  A series of incidents that are interspersed with in the normal day to day life lead some of the people to decide to pack up and leave and some are guilty and executed by the “legally questionable” Regulators.  This type of going on does not sit well with Matt and he inserts himself into the fray.  This does not earn him any good will from the wealthy ranchers or their hired-hands, the Regulators.  A couple of gunfights establish Jensen’s supremacy and this leads to fear on the wealthy ranchers part and causes them to hire a tough gunslinger nicknamed the Undertaker.  Obviously the story revolves around the upcoming gunfight between these two.

The power of the press comes into play as does former friendships.  The story builds to a climax that sees killings, erstwhile bad people converting, marriages, and in generally folks setting up to live happily ever after.  In this regard the book follows the traditional western genre – bad men, good men, conflict, setbacks for the good guys, evil is overcome, and good triumphs.  But even in triumph, there is loss and pain.

The book is a good read and a quick one.  The character development shows complexity and strength and weakness all rolled together in the storyline.  An enjoyable way to spend a couple of lazy afternoons on the sofa reading and enjoying what is developing. 

Review: North of Laramie- 5 star

An unusual partnership of necessity that develops into a friendship, of sorts, is the underlying storyline.  One partner is a physically big man with little formal education who has often gotten into trouble in former jobs that included being a saloon bouncer, a policeman and a Pinkerton detective is really strong and often does not know the power in his fists.  His buddy, a much smaller man,  is a dandy with a card shark mentality who received strong schooling.

 There are many underlying storylines in this novel, North of Laramie by William and J. A. Johnstone that end up in a little town that is north of Laramie. One might expect the smaller man, Hagen, to be the one on the receiving end of the largesse of the bigger one, Trammel—but one would be wrong.  Each of the “partners” are giving and taking in the partnership. But it is an unusual partnership.

Travels from Wichita and then across the plains into Wyoming are fraught with adventures – horseback rides, saving damsels in distress, being attacked by various criminal bands, train trips.  There is lots of times when the partnership could be strained but it is holding until Hagen gets to where his estranged father controls a huge ranch and owns many of the local townsfolk in Blackstone.  Trammel stands up for his smaller friend with his father and earns the grudging respect of King Charles, as Hagen’s father is called.

  

Trammel parlays his former experience as a lawman into being named the deputy of the small town.  This rapidly morphs into the being the Sherriff and the former sheriff runs out to be found murdered shortly after he left. As in any small town in the old west, there are undercurrents that are going on.  The power in the town is not as it at first seems and the partners need to adjust to the new reality. Power plays are a constant but just because Trammel is a big man and not one with lots of formal education, he is very wise to the way of the criminal enterprise.  He takes his job seriously and this creates some interesting alliances and antagonisms.

  

The book is an easy read and one that is so exciting that once a reader begins, it is hard to stop before the ending.  The character development is stronger than a lot of western novels that just take the tack of good guys versus bad guys then confusion and finally good guys win.  The partnership of Trammel and Hagen, Hagen’s cattle baron father, to previously injured criminals wanting revenge, to an opium-dealing female, etc.  These characters make the story better with some diversions form the western formula and yields a lot of richness for the reader.

Review: Buzzard's Bluff - 5 star

The Texas Ranger’s have been recognized as a well-disciplined police-military force for a number of years.  This book, Buzzard’s Bluff, by William Johnstone helps preserve this fabled goodness.  But this book goes a bit further in which additional issues come into play.  The protagonist, Ben Savage, brings all the best of the Rangers into clear focus.  He is a prime example of the traditional “good guys wearing white hats” ideal.

Savage has been a Ranger for a number of years, but an unexpected inheritance causes him to have to make a decision to continue or to change.  Fortunately, his boss is willing to give him the time to explore the new situation that he finds himself thrust into. He goes to the developing town of Buzzard’s Bluff, which is near Austin to check on his inheritance.

While in the developing town, he is exposed to a variety of  characters from a ranch owner who thinks he can run the town to a well-prepared and lovely female saloon manager. Along the way there is the normal cast of bad actors who are all trying to have everything their own way. These characters range from the owner of the Double-D ranch to a less than honorable young Ranger.

Ben’s dilemma is based on his basic good nature and deciding how to best deal with the nefarious characters in the area where he went to check on his inheritance.  Go or stay; be involved or ignore; these questions and more are the crux of the story.

This novel is a traditional western story—good guys and bad guys.  The characters that Johnstone has created have more depth than many of the traditional westerns.  The book is a great read if you like reading western novels set in the time of the old west.  A worthwhile read that is so good that you’ll not want to put it down once you start.

Review: Nicky's Fire -- 5 star

Nicky’s Fire is a book written for younger readers but I found it very poignant as a father.  Nicky’s dad is a firefighter who is working a second job to help his family survive and thrive.  What is not so apparent at first is that these two jobs take him away from being there for Nicky, including being his baseball tutor. This situation comes to head when Nicky’s class gets assigned a project to do a project about their parent’s careers.  Different students have their parents come as a “show-and-tell” prop in addition to the written and oral student report. After some trepidation, Nicky asks his dad if he can go to work with him and observe, first-hand, what he does.  After some back and forth, Nicky does get to go to the firehouse and discover a totally different side of his very staid father when he is with his firefighter brothers.  The other firefighters adopt Nicky into the “brotherhood” and that elevates them and also his dad in Nicky’s mind.  A broader definition of family is developing in the reader’s mind as these folks interact for the common good.

The firehouse totally accepts Nicky and helps him broaden his prospective of his dad’s work life. The interactions of father and son are heart-warming and mirror what many a similar interaction has experienced.  A fire training academy, a dangerous fire the engine company fights, and a real-life fire experience with Nicky rounds out some of the interactions.  Similar interactions between other children and their dads are peripheral to the main story, but serve to show that Nicky’s experiences are not unique.

Ultimately the dad has a different kind of father-son talk and each of them develops a new perspective that the reader feels in a visceral way.  Soon money is not the only thing that is important but also relationships, parental love, family responsibility, and other feel-good interactions are explored. 

The book is a great read for kids and parents but maybe particularly for dads and sons.  Would be great to read together and have this discussion between the two parties.  There might be some angst and parts of story will be hard for both parent (dad) and child (son).  While this is focused mainly on male-bonding, it is a broader story that has applicability for various parental/child groupings.  Definitely a thumbs up for reading.

Review Have Brides Will Travel

The Have Brides Will Travel book by William and JA Johnstone, is another of the traditional western novels.  This one has a different twist as Bo and Scratch escort a group of erstwhile “mail order brides” to an out-of-the-way mining town in New Mexico.  It is way more of an adventure than either of the salty old cowboys expected.  Love in many misplaced adventures, robbery, murder, chivalry, and romance among other things happens to the five young Iowa women on their way to meet their “husbands.”  In typical Johnstone fashion the good guys will prevail after much unrest and upheaval.  Not everyone who seems to be a friend is nor everyone who appears to be an enemy either.  In the end all comes together but with enough left unsaid that one can add the ending that is most preferred!  Definitely a good read and one that moves very fast. #NetGalley

Review of The Space Between Worlds--3 stars

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson was a book that I expected to enjoy as it looked at the multiverse and how parallel universes could exist.

There is little to no real science to support the idea but that is the basis of science fiction—possible or alternate futures. I found the writing confusing and the story hard to follow.  It was far more fantasy than science fiction as there seemed little to believe might be true.  Character development was interesting as was the idea that a person could not exist simultaneously in different realities in a multiverse reality.  It seemed that the author had maintained some connections across the multiverses and explored a possibility if they existed how individuals in one might be different in another.  Cara, the protagonist, was different in different worlds or at least somewhat different.  Could an individual from a different Earth (referred to by numbers) than Earth Zero – the “original" one pull off a switch into another Earth?  Would it be like identical twins switching places?  This is one of the ideas explored.

I’m sure some readers would like or even love this book and storyline, but alas, that was not for me.  I was reading a free review copy but if I had actually purchased this book, I would have been very upset at anything over $0.25 that I might have paid. Just not my cup of tea and I do love and voraciously read science fiction. My rating of 3 is based on the fact that it was not bad enough for me to quit reading and also that I feel some might like it.