There is no such thing as a bad Johnstone western. Each series is built around main characters whose belief in the law and family is absolute, even if they've had to be reformed to get there. From Preacher, the original mountain man to the Jensen family to Perly Gates, to.....well, you get the point. Many times, characters from one series will show up in another as supporting hands. The communities are true to the era, clothing, guns, food and troubles are all what you'd find if you looked them up in the history books. No two stories are the same, each character or set of characters is unique and so are their stories. The writing is skillful, readers are pulled into the story and you will laugh and cry right along with the characters. I made the mistake of picking up a Johnstone western my uncle was reading. Ive been hooked ever since. Now I share them with my reading family and will continue as long as new Johnstones are released.

Red Ryan, who rides shotgun for his superstitious partner and wagon driver, "Buttons" Muldoon, has a new adventure full of twists and turns. Their adventure begins when their boss orders them to drive a coach with a morbid history to pick up a group of passengers. One of whom is on the run from a dangerous man. But the trouble doesn't end there, it only just begins to unfold. The man isn't working for himself, but for the mafia, and he's after something the passenger stole from them.

Trouble doesn't just come from the criminal elements, but from the law as well. Both Red Ryan and Buttons get to experience city justice. In the process of defending themselves, they discover the concept of "guilty until proven innocent..." Red Ryan has his work cut out for him, trying to survive and get his passengers to their destination in one piece and alive to boot.

This book was a very fasinating story, and (I think) a new twist in which the characters in other books by this author didn't yet come against. With the mafia involved, the characters aren't just up against a gang of thugs, but against a ruthless organization who will hunt down their enemies until they achieve their goal. It was a good fast paced story, with colorful characters and was very enjoyable to read.

William W Johnstone's Last Stage to El Paso, book five from A Red Ryan Western series, was a good read. Four stars.

Last Stage to El Paso is another entertaining western from William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone. This one is in the Red Ryan series but Texas John Slaughter is also in it. This is not one of the best series but it have some fun elements and I must say I like the way that the author have different series with various professions in them. This way you can get a glimpse into various aspects of everyday life in the old west although fiction. This time Red and his driver is taking a haunted stagecoach to Houston and they are hunted by the mafia. There are some fun scenes in Houston in regards to new inventions and the old ways. I must thank @kensingtonbooks @netgalley #Pinnacle for giving me this advance copy and @williamw.j.a.johnstone for writing it. #NetGalley #Kensington #LastStageToElPaso #WilliamWJohnstone #JAJohnstone #Western #RedRyan

In one of the Johnstone syndicate’s latest books concerning the two characters Muldoon and Ryan—a stage driver and a shotgun man respectively, the story becomes very interesting, like most of the Johnstone writings are. A haunted stage along with drugs, a beautiful woman and other stage performers all wrap into this story.

In the “Last Stage to El Paso,” there is a doomed stage (maybe haunted or cursed or just unlucky) and a long trip with interesting characters including Miss Erica a fan dancer heading eastward to perform her dance. The stage has a nickname of the Gray Ghost, and it is different. The stage crew is sure that evil follows it. Mainly because all of the previous three crews of driver and shotgun are dead in violence but no one can tell why!

Getting all the passengers to their destinations turns out to be more of an experience that either Buttons or Red bargained for but true to their owner and his company ideals, they push on. How many of the five passengers will survive and will the fourth driver and shotgun survive? At times that is questionable that any will do so. Between outlaws, mafia, and Apache it seems like they may all die violently.

An enjoyable read. If you haven’t read a Red Ryan story before this one might be an adventuresome one to start with.