Dry Road to Nowhere -- 4 stars

Of all the Western stories that the Johnstone syndicate has done, the ones set in Wyoming and related to "King" Hagen are my least favorite. With that said, this one dealing with two ornery mule skinners turned stagecoach drivers is one of the better in this category. Butch Keeler and Tucker Cobb are a crew and are two men to ride the range with.  They have been friends and partners for a while now and each of them is pretty tough.

This story seems to mostly focus on Hagen and his attempts to prevent them from operating the Frontier Overland Company.  But there is a twist of a Madam Pinochet and her hired man who runs an opium den along with a beautiful lady who happens to be friend with Cobb.  They are determined to help the "King" ruin the lives of the coach drivers.

A few other examples of running through rampaging Native Americans to get to a besieged fort enter into the story as well as struggling to survive and taking on almost any job to do so.  This includes transporting some good, dark bock beer made by a German immigrant.  So, there are twists and turns.

Culminating in a trial concerning a death which some think is a murder and others think is self-defense.  Climax has some different endings than you might expect.  Not a bad overall story but still not a huge fan of this book.