Review--Blood in the Dust--5 stars

 William and J. A. Johnstone wrote a book about a Confederate veteran living in an Black Hills’ enclave with many Yankee sympathizers. He was a tracker who saw the depravations of war where brothers fought brothers.  The book is called Blood in the Dust and is about Hunter Buchanon.  Hunter is a young man who has seen the depravations of war and really just wants to be left alone.  He is a man of many talents including gold mining, although his gold dust was found and stolen by another, leaving him and his father pretty destitute. He has a quick temper and a quicker and faster fist to handle most issues.

He has a pet coyote, named Bobby Lee, who exhibits many of traditional traits of a coyote.  Bobby Lee is very protective of both Hunter and his friends including the nice girl turned saloon drinks girl, Anabelle.  Hunter and Anabelle were to be married when Hunter had his gold stolen.  He refuses to expect a woman to marry him when he has nothing in a material sense to offer.

With this as a background, there are family issues to nag hunter—his own as well as Anabelle’s.  There are ne’er-do-wells who get involved and one who loses his life.  This creates of cascading and interlocking stories leading to Hunter becoming the town marshal. Of course, a series of bandits and bad guys appear, and Hunter is determined to solve the crimes they are directly and indirectly responsible for causing.

A beautiful woman from Denver who is hired as the local schoolteacher complicates the story, as does a supposed husband that she shot in a very sensitive place.  As you might guess, there are all sorts of interconnections including family issues that must be solved.

Since in most Westerns, the good guys always win, you might expect this to happen here but there are some unexpected twists that must be handled before any wedding can take place.

This was an enjoyable read and went very rapidly.  It is one of those novels that is just hard to put down and page after page gets turned when the reader wants to know what’s next.

Review -- Preacher's Carnage - 5 stars

 In William and J. A. Johnstone’s’ book, Preacher’s Carnage, there is another installment of the mountain man book series.  This one is number 25 in the ongoing series about the individuals who helped forge the western landscape of a new and developing country. It is a delightful read.

This edition is full of the typical twists and turns that one might expect in a Johnstone written novel. Getting the Preacher riled up enough to follow through is pretty easy but goes well beyond the brutal attack on a wagon train moving along the Santa Fe Trail.  All that carnage is not enough but the intervention of a potential fiancé of one of the missing members of the train, who just happens to be a beautiful Spanish senorita, is the tipping point. Preacher is not normally a vengeful man ---but in this case he may be pushed too far.

There is a reward but that is far secondary to just doing the right thing  Sometimes doing the right things call for partnering with some marginal characters.  There are banditos, as well as Indios, who get involved as Preacher works to find out the truth about the missing gold on the train which was attacked as well as the disappearing bridegroom. Some erstwhile allies may be more two-faced than can be imagined.  Preacher must always be on alert for a double-cross to happen.

Danger seems to lurk around every bush and to be more prevalent that the spines on the local plants—just waiting to poke and cause pain.  In true Western spirit, the truth is discovered and those needing to be punished are caught. 

A novel that is fun to read and one that the pages seem to turn themselves and the next part of this fun Western adventure reveals itself.  A definite must read in the series of books from the Johnstone dynamo.

Review - Texas Kill of the Mountain Man - 5 star

Texas Kill of the Mountain Man, by William and J. A. Johnstone is another in the series of the Smoke Jensen stories.  For those who may not have read about Smoke, he was a gunfighter extraordinaire.  In his older years, he has left any of his wild ways behind and is now a respectable horse rancher, raising the best in Colorado.  He is happily married and running his ranch.

One of his oldest friends, a rancher down in Texas, wants to buy some of Smoke’s fine quarter horses –100 to be exact.  These do not come cheap, normally selling for well over $100 each when “normal” horses are only bringing $30-$40 dollars.  Smoke is giving his friend a break at $90.  Regardless a lot of money.

There are several backstories in this novel – including a rape and murder, a nefarious quickdraw gunfighter who used to be a college professor and took that sobriquet, Professor, and some plain old bad ne’er-do-wells!! These add to the suspense of the novel.

As you might  expect the Professor is drawn to the older Smoke to test his speed with the draw.  Of course, this showdown happens and although Professor and his gang were hellbent on criminal adventure, there is more to the aging Smoke and his hands than is immediately clear.

The story is like most of the ones involving Smoke, his wife and ranch – the end is ultimately good for the good guys.  In this way this is a typical western, but the parts of getting too the expected conclusion bring all the excitement that a reader would want.  Another enjoyable Smoke Jensen novel and well worth the reader’s time to read.

Review - The Shotgun Wedding - 5 stars

The Shotgun Wedding by William and J. A. Johnstone is an enjoyable book. It is set in an old western town, Silverhill, NM, that is making the sometime painful transition to more modern ways.  Two grizzled old friends, Bo Creel and Scratch Morton have come to be here in a roundabout way.

They were hired by another old friend to provide safe passage to a group of five mail order brides who were traveling there looking for their future husbands. But as often happened in real life the expected husbands did not readily materialize.

These young women were not the expected hapless females, as the town and both Bo and Scratch were to discover.  However, the two old friends felt an obligation to the ladies than transcended just getting them to their destination.

Positions of town marshal and deputy were available and seemed perfect to wile away some time waiting on the right man to marry the female charges.  As you might guess there are a lot of adventures awaiting everyone concerned.

Following the adventures from well-off rancher, miners, cowhands, Mexican bandits, a murderous doctor, stagecoach jehu, and more, they are on their way to one of the young women having a real shotgun wedding.  But the story is different in a number of ways including a kidnapping, a pregnancy; but in true Western novel fashion the good guys win in the end. These women are breaking the norm of the times and while it might seem a little scandalous it makes the book hard to put down.

Definitely encourage this read as it paints a different picture of the west in New Mexico during this late 1800s time.  Another well done story using the ideas of the late William Johnstone.