Review - The Rocking R Ranch-- 5 stars

Tim Washburn has a hit in his new book The Rocking R Ranch. The story follows the Ridgeway family dynasty along the Texas and Indian Territory border (aka Oklahoma). The ranch of nearly 50 thousand acres was on a border that was frequented by marauding Indians as well as various cattle rustling, horse-stealing, murdering and assorted other criminals. The patriarch, Cyrus, had four living children who were on the family place living in a near communal lifestyle.  The children, two boys and two girls, all had their own lives and they did not always get along very well.

The basic storyline is about the lives of the family and their run-ins with criminals and ne'er-do-wells and the interactions with not only the children but the next generation as well.  A large part of the story concerns trying to rescue a 13 year old granddaughter, Emma, who was abducted by a war party of Comanche braves.  The story bounces along the northern part of Texas into the panhandle and into Palo Duro Canyon.  As one might expect there are war parties and death around every corner in the attempt to get her back.  Grandfather, father, and uncles, as well as hired-hands all get involved in her rescue attempt.  The Army working out of Ft. Sill becomes involved as the settlers from the east would like some of the good land in Oklahoma and the Indians have to be contained.

Tragedy is a regular occurrence, whether it is weather, death, abduction, or adultery. One of the interesting and unexpected things a reader discovers is the way that the family deals with these happenings.  It is not exactly the way that one might expect from a rough western family living where the mantra is being tougher than the other person. The Indians have a name for the family men of Heap Big Guns and Little Heap Big Guns.  To find out what this means, read the book.  If you like Westerns you’ll enjoy this one with a slightly different twist.

Review - Montana Territory - 5 stars

Following Army Scout, John Hawk on his adventure described in the book Montana Territory by Charles West, is an interesting adventure.  The story looks at a man who is tough and determined to see that right prevails sometimes at great risk.  This quest for good is accomplished in a stepwise fashion even with risk to himself.  He is a white man who had spent time with the Native Americans in the area and learned much about honor from them as well as how to track and survive in the wilderness.  He often scouts for the US Army not to help kill the native peoples but to help them survive and not be killed without trying to make peaceful contact and learning to live in the current world environment. He seems to understand the hardships that all those living in Montana face.  He also knows that there are the criminals who try to take the easy way and steal from others often killing indiscriminately.

This story is primarily about Hawk leading others by example and tracking down scoundrels who have killed just to take money from other settlers.  The adventures takes him across the plains and into the mountains where there are close calls and some tender moments as well. Montana forms a great backdrop for the expansive story.  Hawk and his well-trained horse become the central focus of the story with supporting parts played by good guys from Army troops to shopkeepers.  Of course the robbers have their adherents and those willing to look the other way to get money.  This is a classic good versus evil.  Hawk is one of the good guys but he also has temptations to take the easy way but remembers his teachings. The story comes to a climax in Helena, the new territorial capital.

The book is a quick read and is hard to put down.  If you like a traditional western story, then this is a definite must read.  The Hawk character is the epitome of the US Western spirit of self-determination and honesty.

Review Bullet for a Stranger - 5 star

In Bullet for a Stranger, what do you get when you combine a stagecoach, a Texas Ranger, two criminals, an adventuress, an alleged coward, and numerous other colorful characters?  A rip snorting story that is played out across the Texas plains on the way to New Orleans.  The requisite, typical bad guys are in evidence as well as British “gentlemen” wanting revenge.  Stir this up add a dash of electrical story, a woodburning steam engine car and you add more intrigue to this story as it unfolds.  Did I forget to mention that there are some paleontologists and a love story playing in the background?  If you are looking for a rapidly changing cast of characters who do some rather unusual things then this is a book for you.  You can also throw in a little voodoo in New Orleans and perhaps a British naval ship firing off its guns to scare the locals.

If that first paragraph didn’t grab you in a positive way, you can rest assured that the book itself by William Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone will pull you in.  It is well written and is fast moving.  Each chapter beings an almost unbelievable set of situations.  Some Westerns move along in rather traditional ways.  About the only thing that is traditional about this is that there are good guys and bad guys but not always are they as clearly delineated as you might hope. They are human with their attendant foibles.

Good characters like the adventuress, Hannah; Buttons, the stage driver; Red, the shotgun guard;  John, the coward; and many others play out across the 700 mile journey that takes many twists and turns on the way to New Orleans.  A definite must read if you like westerns and in particular if you like the stories that the Johnstone franchise turns out.

Review - Ungentlemanly Warfare- 5 star

Ungentlemanly War by Howard Linskey was a delightful book and one that struck me as a precursor to some of the James Bond books.  The main character, Harry Walsh, is a British “spy” turned into a jack-of-all-trades concerning infiltration behind German lines in France.  He has a daring-do that leads people to follow him.  It also creates some problems with those who are in the “right” circles of English gentlemen; Harry is definitely not. As such he is considered expendable and is often sent on what might be termed suicide missions. So far he has survived and proven himself up to the challenge.

The man storyline of this book is one that is way beyond all others and leads to lots of adventures, scrapes, loss of lives, and using others to accomplish his tasks.  The book reveals a great deal about the German occupation of France and how the collaborators and the partisans see this and each other.  Lots of clandestine work on all sides. The task of Harry and his team is to take out the scientist working on the German rocket plane before it actually flies and creates havoc among the Allied airplanes.  It is necessary to do this before the Invasion.

Ups and down and ins and outs, double agents and death follow the story as it probably did in real lie.  The book’s ending does tell some of the “facts” behind this fictional story. All in all it was an easy read that kept the reader’s attention.  Throw in a bit of a love story, dedication, and danger on every corner and this adventure plays out in a very enjoyable read.  Definitely is recommended  read.

Review - The Vanishing Sky - 3 star

The story described in The Vanishing Sky was one that I was originally very excited to see.  Not being German, I was not sure what would be the story of these two young German men who were fighting and living near the end of WW II.  The two brothers and their trials and tribulations were heart-wrenching at times as I tried to imagine what I would have done and felt if either of these had been me.  Their nuclear family was a bit of a enigma; mother was about like any mother would be considering that both her sons were in a position to lose their lives.  The father was living out his own remembrances from WW I and projecting his experiences onto his children.

The oldest son had just returned from the eastern front but his injury was not really physical but more deep rooted. He was not able to eat and wandered in the community.  In a war-torn country this was looked at askance by neighbors.  The younger son was at a school/camp run by the Hitler Youth.  Here they learned the essence of adoration of the Fuhrer  as well as how to follow orders – it was an indoctrination camp basically.  There was tension among some of the boys.  But when the time came for them to be called to fight the Allies as all the adult able-bodies were already committed or dead/injured.

The story seems to skip back a bit and forth and is a psychological/sociological view.  Some readers might not prefer this jumping back and forth and even decide to put the book down half-way through it.  The story depicted was probably reflective of the times in Germany near the end of the war, which would have been confusing and unsettled.  The book is written this way, I assume on purpose.

Review: They Came to Kill - 5 star

In the book, They Came to Kill by William W. Johnstone, J.A. Johnstone, there is an intriguing story of a band of mountain men and adventurers.  They are the last of a breed who are very self-reliant and tough.  They have been through much together and alone.  Why did they join up?  Well there is a story there.  Jamie MacCallister was asked by an old friend who is an Army officer to go into the Apache stronghold and clean them out so that one of the transcontinental railroads might come through on the southern route.  But the determinant for MacCallister is that the old friend’s son was commanding a troop that was massacred by the Apache but his son’s body was not found.

Jamie has an old friend called Preacher with whom he has ridden with before and he is going to ask him if he will accompany him and round up some more of the old frontiersmen who just like the adventure of it.  All fine except Preacher has already promised a young married couple from Tennessee to see them to California.  There was trouble with the wife’s brothers who consider her to be kidnapped although they are very legally married; they were going to kidnap her and either badly injure or kill the new husband.

As letters are written and sent and the wait is on for the other of the band to roll in, the young newlyweds figure out a way to accompany the band for their own safety from the brothers but also they prove their mettle with guns.  Naturals was the way Preacher describe it.  Finally the whole expedition is joined together n Santa Fe and they are ready to head south, maybe into Mexico.  The brothers make another attempt to get their sister and they end up in jail in Santa Fe.

The Mountain men band along with Fletch and his wife head south looking for the Apache.  The Apache will be found and as many folks know, this band is rather bloodthirsty.  Lots of fighting, kidnapping, deaths, killings, and other exciting western lore play out on the stage of the southwest US and Mexico.  Some of the band will die and many of the Indians will die.  Will Preacher overcome adversity and the young couple get to California?  Will the brothers give up their Appalachian Mountain ethos? The reader of this book will be entertained as they find out these answers and more.

Like other Johnstone books, this one was very enjoyable and a very easy read.  If you like Western novels, you’ll like this one.

I received a copy of the book to review from www.netgalley.com

Review: Pray for Death - 5 stars

In the book Pray for Death by William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone, the reader is introduced to a young Deputy US Marshal, Will Tanner.  Tanner is about as upstanding a man as you might find anywhere in the west.  Once he sets his sights on a wrong doer in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma, he will pursue and pursue.  He makes friends easily and treats his targets with respect as long as they are not truly evil people. 

As a young man, his head has been turned by a lovely young lady in Ft. Smith, Arkansas where the Marshal Service for the Indian Territory is headquartered.  Like many a man, he begins to have second thoughts as his intended and her mother planned this major wedding.  He’d prefer to just go stand-up in front of a preacher and get it done without all the hullabaloo.  

He is very dedicated to the marshalling job and this has created a few moments of anxiety on the part of his future wife as her father was also a lawman and was lost during fulfilling his duties.  She is rightfully worried about Tanner’s safety. He seems to be oblivious to the dangers or have a very high opinion of his prowess, which is great.

During a supposedly easy pickup of some prisoners in the Territory, he and another Deputy meet up with an old friend of Will’s – a Choctaw lawman, Jim Little Eagle.  They have helped each other in the past and Little Eagle may get drawn in again as the easy pick-up develops into something more.  This is where the story gets interesting as he discovers there is a cabal of bad men who want to set up a hidey-place for outlaws coming up from Texas where there is very little law; generally only the US Marshals enforce the law in the Territory and they are days away in Ft. Smith.  Native lawmen cannot legally arrest a white man. 

It is this cabal that leads Will on a merry chase including gunfights, killings, arrests, escapes, rearrests, near hangings, illegally crossing into Texas, and other similar western happenings of the time.  Through it all the integrity of Deputy US Marshal Will Tanner remains unsullied.  There are repented and unrepentant criminals who pop in and out of the story line. Rest assured that U.S. Deputy Marshal Will Tanner will treat each one fairly.

Will’s marriage is to take place on Christmas Day but will Tanner be able to make it back in time from an extended tracking of criminals or will he have to look for a new wife?  While on the trail Will Tanner loses track of the exact date, but his impending scheduled wedding is still on his mind. The race is getting the criminals to justice, protecting the citizens from them, and getting himself back in time to tie the knot. 

Lots of storylines run through the book, making it a delightful read and making it hard to put down as one situation morphs into another. The authors have done a great job of keeping the reader’s interest and the characters feel more than the traditional wooden ones that are sometimes apparent in a western novel.  Definitely I would recommend this to anyone interested in reading about the happenings as Oklahoma was first opened basically as the Indian Territory.

This preview copy was provided by #NetGalley for my review.

Review: Rising Fire - 5 star

Rising Fire  by William and J.A. Johnstone returns the reader to more stories about the Jensen family.  The patriarch, Smoke, as well as other family members have been the focus of other books by the Johnstones.  This particular installment begins with a focus on the Jensen twins, Denise (Denny) and Louis.  The story begins with them in Europe and takes several interesting turns from there.  Louis has a congenital heart issue that leads to him tiring easily and one which could threaten his life.  He is more the scholar in the family while Denny is the typical rough and tumble “tomboy.”   Louis is more the reader and thinker and Denny the active one; although she is also a very bright young woman.

Denny can out ride and out shoot many (most) men, all the while being a beautiful lass with blond curls and a feminine curvature, obvious when she has on a dress but less obvious when dressed as a ranch hand.  Her physical attraction comes to the attention of a Italian Count Malatesta while she and Louis are visiting in Venice. The count tells her that he is of Sicilian nobility and wines and dines her hoping to make a connection.  He is so charming that Denny is tempted by his suave, continental flare. There are many ups and downs in this relationship but eventually the twins must return to their grandparents in England and then Denny back to the western United States. The Count has certainly underestimated the charming Denny.

About as tempestuous as she can be, Denny is not only the apple of her dad’s eye but also the object of desire and longing for many other men in the town, including a deputy US Marshal, Brice. One day while wandering around town and watching the debarkation of train passengers, Denny is caught off guard even though several years have passed since her adventures in Venice when she sees  someone looking familiar looking getting off the train.  Denny, as she is pondering who it is, gets caught up in a confrontation between two train passengers and several ruffians.  The criminals are handled and then Denny realizes just who the object of their attack is—none other than the Count and his factotum,  She responds in a most unladylike way with a tremendous slap delivered with vengeance to the Count, startling everyone.

Many twists and turns take place through the rest of the story placing not only her life in danger but ultimately her Deputy Marshal admirer as well as the Count.  In good old West fashion, the good guys get the upper hand in this suspenseful battle of two men vying for the attention of the lovely Denny.  The Count’s less than upstanding past comes back to haunt the proceedings as well as him and those with whom he is in contact.

The storyline is nicely developed with background being introduced at the most appropriate times to keep the reader involved and in suspense.  It is a novel that is hard to put down once the reader begins because one is always wondering, “what next?” Definitely worthwhile.