I thought Texas Kill of the Mountain Man was a great read. I will be giving it four and a half stars.

I should start by mentioning I am a bit of a connoisseur of Johnstone books. My library contains over 300 of the vast series. I've read over half of that. There are GREAT Johnstone books, bad books and books in between. Here's my review of this one...

Another of the Johnstone Clan of ghost writers endeavors upon a Smoke Jensen tale. I recognize the approach and the writing. This is the one that likes to fluff stories with newspaper articles of actions already taken place in the story. One or two not being repetitive and moving the story along would be fine. Unfortunately, there's more and the tale halts at each entry. This writer also has trouble putting depth in a story. A linear tale with occasional over long flashbacks.

This is a sprawling story that, written by a better author, could've been a tremendous novel. The plot is a far cry from the typical Mountain Man versus bad guys treeing towns that make up the bulk of the series. This is a great direction to go in. But the poor writing of the story, dialogue and very poorly rendered atmosphere sets this book back.

The Johnstone characters, as usual, are the best part of the book. A plus to this Johnstone Clan story is a bad guy a bit different with less stereo-typical henchmen.

This is a review via access from NetGalley.

Bottom line: I don't recommend this book. 5 out of ten points.

When you open the cover of a book that bears the names William A and JA Johnstone, you are guaranteed an excellent western with a family of characters you will never forget. The Johnstone brand contains several series, each featuring a family and set in a different time period. They do overlap, you will greet characters from one family into the stories of another on a regular basis. this only adds to the rich feel of the stories as the characters interact in true western fashion. It's the good guys against the bad guys and sometimes the good guys have to be bad to get the job done, but get it done they do. Spoiler alert....the good guys win in the end.

Smoke Jensen has seen many changes in the territories as they become settled and more and more people move west. Not all of these people come west to settle down and raise a family and a future. They are here to build a future, they just prefer to steal it. Smoke has become famous with a fast draw and a good heart. He will help whenever and where ever needed. As he has aged, he becomes better known for his horses than his guns. He has set up a horse sale to a friend, but when he gets there, he finds his friend has been killed, his cattle rustled and now the rustlers have stolen half of Smoke's horses. Let the excitement begin!!!

The Johnstone motto is LIFE FREE, READ HARD and that's how these books are written. If you love a good western, you should be reading Johnstone's Smoke Jensen series.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

smoke jenson the owner of a ranch and supplier of the best horses around plus it helps that he is the fastest man on the draw

things come to a head when after delivering 100 horses to his friend 50 of them go missing and cant be found...rustling is abound....

big jim the owner of the ranch is also brokering a deal with his angus cattle...but there is a gang around gaining a bad reputation and before long they come looking

my first book with smoke jenson and hopefully not my last...some brilliant characters in this book and hopefully will get to meet them again

cant wait for the next book in the series

First of all I need to thank #Pinnacle #KensingtonBooks and #Netgalley for giving me this arc from William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone called Texas Kill of the Mountain Man. It's the latest one about Smoke Jensen. In this one he fights rustlers in Texas while trying to deliver some horses to a friend. The stories about Smoke is not as good as they where in the beginning but they are still entertaining. I find that I like the ones where he is getting older is better. I still do love some western reading.

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.

In this 42nd episode of Johnstone's Mountain Man series, Texas Kill of the Mountain Man (Pinnacle 2020), Smoke Jensen plans to take one hundred head of horses to his longtime friend Big Jim Conyer's horse ranch in Texas. Valued at over $10000, a band of outlaws steals half of them, and then make off with a passel of Conyer's cows just as they're ready to go to market. When they kill Big Jim in the process, that assures them that they have Smoke's attention and they won't like the result. To complicate things, Jensen hires a new horse handler who is a magician with horses. The problem is, an old friend from his past wants to kill him for stealing the man’s girlfriend.

As usual there are no slow points in a Johnstone Western especially when the Jensens are involved. Only two things bothered me with this one I didn't notice in earlier books. First, Johnstone included an inordinate amount of conversation to share information. This is normally a good way to provide background but in this case, it slowed the pace down. Second, the plot twists weren't as clever as in the past. Not a big thing, just enough to be noticeable.

Overall, a good read and a nice addition to the Jensen Universe.