I want to thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for giving me the opportunity to review this book. I admit in my joy at joining NetGalley I may have been overzealous in my requesting numbers. As this book has already been published, I am choosing to work on the current upcoming publish date books in my que. As I complete those I will work on my backlogged request and will provide a review at that time. I again send my sincere thanks and apologies.

Pray for Death is just a straight up ‘get the bad guys and lock em up’ type book, but at the same time it’s also about the bad guys trying to get away from him and also trying to outsmart him. But sadly as time goes on, Will Tanner always outsmart the criminals as much as he can, even when he’s just trying to make sure everyone is safe.

But I find it kinda funny that he’s about to miss his own wedding, which when I read that made me go ‘ooohhhhhhh’ because he’s been chasing Ward Hawkins and Tiny MceGee, but I hope once I get done with this book that he does, because I really want him to get married. I also do like the fact that he acts like a marshall of the law and giving people the choice.

And the Hawkins gang...I started to give them the side eye because there’s something about them that I don’t like-I mean, Fanny basically shot Tiny McGee in the back of the shoulder because she couldn’t get a clear shot, and she told her boys to chase down the Marshall and string him up, which is really, really bad, though it was funny when Hawkins tried to maneuver him and tried to overpower him, but it doesn’t even work.

Then when they got back into town (he and Hawkins), and they had to see Doc, Hawkins THOUGHT that he could escape one last time, but at the end, it didn’t work as he got stabbed in the neck by Doc’s cook, and then got shot, which was bad on his part because he didn’t expect the cook to stab him in the neck.. But in the end, he got what he deserves, and Will came home, only to get punched in the face by Sophie when he came back, but at least he got married at the end.

I think this one is my least favorite one because yes there was a lot of action in it, and he was trying to get the bad guys and bring them back home. The last couple books of his were about rustlin’ cattle and fighting the bad guys, but this one changed the pace and I love it so, so much. I liked the lingo that I’ve been hearing almost all my life, like likker (liquor), and other words I can’t remember.

Pray for Death was a perfect addition to the Will Tanner series. I thought it was great and am giving it five stars.

The Johnstone name on a book insures an excellent read as you follow the characters through history to see the settling of the west as it happened. These are undoubtedly some of the best western books ever written.

US Marshall Will Tanner is juggling many duties as he chases criminals all over the territories while his future is being planned at home. A friend and fellow lawman requests Tanner's assistance in breaking up a gang that is causing trouble wherever they can. Will's help could be the difference between winning and losing this battle, so off he goes, even though the day of his wedding is drawing close.

Exciting setting for an entertaining story that is not all "shoot em up" but is still an excellent western. Every Johnstone book can be enjoyed as a stand alone. Reading any of the series only enriches your enjoyment of the stories.

This was an entertaining Western, to be sure. I didn't read the books in this series that came before it, and I didn't feel that I'd missed out on anything. But it also didn't spark for me either. I hate to say this, but it was...meh. The plot was well-paced, the writing was visual, but for me, the characters felt flat.
So overall...it was okay.

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 standup 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.

In Pray for Death (Pinnacle 2020), Book 6 of the Will Tanner Westerns series, Will Tanner, US Marshall, is supposed to get married on Christmas. He loves his fiancee but planning this wedding is like pulling porcupine quills out of his foot so he jumps at the chance to help an Indian policeman, Jim Little Eagle, with ruffians who are shooting up his Nations-based town. It doesn't take long to stop them--

"There was not enough intelligence between the two drifters to fill a whiskey glass."

...but these two are part of a larger group that are themselves part of a town--Muddy Boggy Creek--created by not far from the Nations with the express purpose of supplying the Indians with liquor and owl hoots with a safe place to stay when pursued by the law. Will realizes he must clean out this town--the source of the problem--or he won't have solved anything. That will take longer but Will is sure he can take care of it before his Big Day (well, pretty sure) and that’s what he sets out to do. Being Will Tanner, he won't quit until he succeeds and he always has clever ways to face problems.

The first sentence of this book sets it firmly in the old west genre I love. Read this:

"Jim Little Eagle reined his paint gelding to a halt on the bank of Muddy Boggy Creek about fifty yards upstream of the log building bearing the crudely lettered sign that identified it as MAMA’S KITCHEN."

This is another in the excellent Johnstone Old West saga. I am so happy it is a series.

What a great change of pace this American Western novel was. Just plain good vs. bad with no shades of gray to keep the U. S. Deputy Marshall from doing his job. Back years ago I read every western novel I could find by a different famous American author and enjoyed going back to times when decisions seemed to be so much easier to make. Now, with isolation required to help slow the spread of the Covid-19 virus, the availability of this novel depicting different times and places seemed like an opportunity too good to pass up. Sure enough this book went down a treat!

U. S. Deputy Marshall Will Tanner is a man who does the hard work of bringing lawbreakers to justice in the Oklahoma territory. If Tanner has you in custody and he tells you he's going to shoot you if you try to escape, believe him because he will flat out do it. I don't remember ever having read a novel written by William W. Johnstone so had no idea of what to expect. The story is all dialogue; descriptions are held to a bare minimum and it turns out I was absolutely okay with that. Filled with action practically from the beginning this is the tale of a lawman setting out to capture criminals and transport them back to his base so they could stand trial. Single minded and straight as an arrow Tanner knew what had to be done and he made no apologies about doing it. Wonderful escapist reading that kept me glued to the page. I just never knew what Tanner would do next!

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books, Pinnacle for an e-galley of this novel.