I'm a diehard fan of good westerns. I seldom meet another person who loves them as much as I do.....with the exception of my uncles who first introduced me to the genre many, many years ago. Brett Cogburn promotes himself as the great grandson of the original Rooster Cogburn but I read his books because he definitely knows how to write westerns that keep his fans happy and coming back for more. His heroes are tough men, usually with nothing to lose but plenty to fight for so they are determined to civilize those who would see this era remain as the last home of the unlawful men that make their livings off the backs of others. And so we get to SMOKE WAGON. Morgan Clyde has been hired to enforce the law by the railroad companies who must lay track through some of the most unfriendly land in Indian Territory. Cogburn's characters and back grounds are true to the era and pull readers back to the late 1800's when the railroads were pushing through to every major port and cattle ranch to move animals, people and goods to an ever expanding United States. The character of Morgan Clyde and towns detailed in Smoke Wagon gave me the feeling of stepping back into history. Just what a great western should do.

In Brett Cogburn's Smoke Wagon (Pinnacle Books 2021), Book 1 in the Morgan Clyde Western series, Morgan Clyde has a reputation as a fearless gunslinger with a bias for justice enhanced by a maverick streak. He’s usually hired by desperate people to clean up lawless situations, willing to look the other way to justify the ends. That's what brings him to Ironhead Station, a settlement in Indian Territory that is not yet under the jurisdiction of any US laws. As the current last stop on a railroad being built, the developers can’t get any farther until the lawlessness that prevents the track's completion is removed. Morgan is brought in to do just that, no questions asked, at least enough that the railroad can complete its work and move on to the next undeveloped stop. Though Clyde has done this sort of impossible work often in the past, this particular job turns out to be one of his most difficult yet.

The story is steeped in the gritty details of the Old West with a peek at the dirty underside and the tough men who made the railroad expansion across America happen. It is action packed and realistic, but a touch dark as far as the people who populate this world and the borderline illegal actions of even those who try to tame the monster.

Smoke Wagon by Brett Cogburn
Morgan Clyde #1

Well written, action packed, Western with a legendary hero starring as the lead character – Morgan Clyde is bigger than life but bleeds like any other man.

I was swept into Ironhead Station along with our hero. It is noisy, dirty, filled with the desperate and those milking the men of their money. It is a place not many would choose to live…unless they had a good reason to be there. And, some of them had good reasons while others had evil ones. Chief Clyde was commissioned to set the town to rights and that is what he set out to do.

What I liked:
* Morgan Clyde: Yankee Civil War Veteran, divorced, father, lawman, sharpshooter, lethal, liked by some and hated by others…a force to be reckoned with…but also very human. Reminded me of a few characters such as Gunsmoke’s Matt Dillon and perhaps a Western Jack Reacher.
* Dixie Rayburn: Reb Civil War Veteran, lawman, deputy to Chief Clyde, talkative, likable, someone I want to know more about.
* Red Molly: mixed feelings about her…kind of the fallen lady with a heart of…not gold but perhaps a soft spot for Clyde. She has her own set of issues…to be sure.
* The bad guys…and there were plenty of them.
* The descriptions: appealed to all the senses and made me feel as if I was there with the rest of the characters.
* Some of the supporting characters: blacksmith, cook, engineer building the line, Harjo and his men, and a few others
* That some of the bad guys were dealt with
* The characters – good and bad – were well fleshed out guys and not always but the person one would expect
* That justice, of sorts, was meted out to a few of the bad
* The historical references
* That there will be more books in the series to look forward to

What I didn’t like:
* The people I was meant to not like and the actions they were involved in
* Not having a clear conclusion to the story though this is a series and we have an inkling of where it might go

What I would have liked:
* I found myself skipping around to follow one story line or another and that made me think that this book could have been broken into two or three separate books. It was fine as it was but it might have been better, for me, if Clyde had dealt with one issue/person/group and settled things then had a new issue to deal with in the next book.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes – but enjoyed the beginning the most and the end…middle was skimmed a bit.
Would I read another book in this series? Yes

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington-Pinnacle Books for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4-5

Thanks to netgalley.com and Kensington Publishing for the advance arc copy for my honest review.

Smoke Wagon was my first read by author Brett Cogburn that had his name as author on it and pretty sure he's another piece to the puzzle as to who is ghost writing for the William W. Johnstone brand.

What a total disappointment, having previously read " The Trainwreckets" and "Lost Mountain Pass", was like cool, based on the description this one will be good. Oh, how wrong, those two books, killed "Smoke Wagon" for me.

While I did like Morgan and Molly, the writing was helliously slow, overloaded with needless details, slow burner action wise and "Strong Justice" made me realize or I thought the writing didn't fit the 19th century Indian Territory.

While I did DNF it. It was the authors own words, that made me get the urg to ask myself do you really care how this one ends? When that happens, I just consider it read.

I'm a huge fan of westerns, and I can't put my finger on exactly what went wrong here, but I think it was effectively the writing style I wasn't a fan of. I tried, but I simply couldn't get into it.

Smoke Wagon review

I’ve never read a book by Brett Cogburn before, so I thought it would be fun to read a Western from the great-grandson of the man who inspired Rooster Cogburn.
Smoke Wagon starts with the main character, Morgan Clyde coming into a railroad encampment to clean it up. Lots of shenanigans and gunfights ensue and the book comes to a rousing conclusion.
I liked a lot of the side characters. Especially deputy Dixie. The villains were great, as well.
I’d like to say that the story moved along well, but to me it didn’t.
Something just seemed off with the pacing for the whole book. Some parts seemed rushed, while other parts just seemed to take a while to end.
That being said, I won’t hesitate to read another book by Brett Cogburn.

The title, I found to be a little misleading, but the book was very good and in the true Western genre. I’m speaking of “Smoke Wagon” by Brett Cogburn. The smoke wagon turns out to be a locomotive. The novel is set at a construction camp at the end of a construction project. The work camp is called Ironhead Station and it is populated by a group of very heard-headed individuals with various plans and schemes. Located in the Indian Territory of what is now Oklahoma, there is little law and only what can be enforced by the fists, clubs, or gun!

In such a work camp there are the obligatory saloons, prostitutes, murders, various toughs, and a conniving person in charge. Enter the main character named Morgan Clyde, a former business man in NYC who became a policeman there. Before that he was in the Union Army from Maine.

Mr. Clyde has a reputation of being meaner that the Devil and he will need all this meanness to make this camp become somewhat safe. There are groups who want to see the railroad stop and not move on from Ironhead for various reasons. The first two lawmen who had the enforcer job have already been killed and bets are being taken on how long Clyde will last.

With all this fast moving action there are crises at every point and each chapter holds something new in the way of danger and adventure. This makes for good reading and builds to when the US Government sends representatives to check on their investment in the railroad.

It is interesting to note that while this is a work of fiction that there are lots of truths in the story. The afterward describes the real world behind the creation of the westward expansion of the country heralded by its railroads.