Title: Guns Of the Mountain Man

Series : last Of the Mountain Man #24

Author : William W. Johnstone

Netgalley

book synopsis

With a brace of Colt .44s, a deadly aim, and a bullet-shredded Bible, despicable desperado Lazarus Cain has already made a name for himself in Texas. But he makes his first mistake when he crosses a Colorado ranch in the highland meadows known as Sugarloaf. His second mistake? Crossing the rancher, Smoke Jensen. With a pair of burning six-guns and a deadly gift for using them, Smoke is about to blow Cain back to his maker. But not before he gives him a flaming taste of Hell -- Mountain Man style



my thoughts

Would I recommend this series : yes

Will I be reading more by this author: yes

I can see why some people didn't like this book because it does have flashbacks" to his other books in the series ,but for me i actually liked it because they just made me want to read more of this series, love how Smoke's friends came to his add even when he didn't want to ask them or even know they was coming, how close the characters where and are like a family. Also the flashbacks help to make the characters more real at least to me , and the bad guy was even a bit creepy which was a other thing I liked about the book .With that said I want to thank Netgalley and Kensington Books for letting me once again read and review one of William W. Johnstone's books exchange for my honest opinion

Lazarus Cain and Smoke Jensen. Two men so different and yet so exciting. I love reading about the Jensens and Johnstone never writes a bad or disappointing book.

If you love westerns, you have to read Johnstone books. That's right, have to. While there are many different Johnstone series, the Mountain Men is one of my favorites. Smoke Jensen and his relatives know right from wrong and have worked hard to get what they have. They do not appreciate anyone trying to take what is theirs. Johnstone writes a great story, bringing his characters to life and making you feel as if you are in the story with them. As long as he keeps writing them, I'll keep reading them.

Guns of the Mountain Man is the twenty fourth book from William W Johnstone's Mountain Man series. I liked it and give it four stars.

GUNS OF THE MOUNTAIN MAN by William W. Johnstone (previous portions by the original author , J.A. Johnstone is the nephew of the late William W. continuing the series) is the 24th book in “The Last Mountain Man”series, and the opening scene involves Cal, a young ranch hand for “Smoke” Jensen who comes upon a group of twenty men apparently stealing cattle, and braces impossible odds in trying to stop them, thus ending up with life threatening injuries after standing up to the intruders, and he doesn’t go out without a fight after shooting two of the outlaws.

Lazarus Cain is the leader of the gang, and has a twisted take on the Bible that he interprets as it suits him (much like Jeff Daniels as Frank Griffin in “Godless”), and is considered crazy by both those with him and against him, and has plans to kill Smoke to be able to take gold off of his land.

Smoke is joined by several friends from the past, and chapters of previous books are used throughout this one as past scenes are reminisced that form a framework to describe the men involved in coming to the aid of the legendary gunfighter, and pretty much make up an all-star cast of gunfighters.

Will Cal survive his wounds and recover, and will Smoke and his friends successfully defend his ranch against the intruders?

Admittedly, this was probably the wrong book for me to read first in this series since it is largely made up of sections of previous books, and although I understand introducing each character by doing so, it comes off a bit like mailing it in, also making it difficult to follow and breaking up any flow to the story.

One thing I noticed that bugged me, and I’ve noticed of late in both novels and movies; is the unrealistic effect of gunshots, understandably not everyone is knowledgeable on this subject, but it makes the action less than realistic for those who do, things like shotgun blasts knocking someone through building walls (or taking a roof off of a building), black powder cast bullet rifle and pistol loads taking someone’s head clean off or knocking them back ten feet, or whatever. I used to laugh about it in favorite spaghetti westerns, but became tired of it around the time the movie “Open Range” came about (how many shots did Kevin Costner’s single action revolver hold anyways?) with some of this present.

OK, I’ll get off my soap box and try to rate this book, and I think it makes rates, barely…

3 stars.