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.

Though a bit better than the first entry in this new Johnstone Clan series, it's not much better. The plotting is pretty light weight. I was concerned this might be a new trend in the Johnstone books. having read about a ten since, seems this is one of the few new series demonstrating an oddly mushy approach.

Again, I have trouble following the location of all that is happening as the writing of settings is poor.
The characters are mostly continuing, but still not of the typical Johnstone strength and rather structured from stereotypes.

This is one of the couple hundred Johnstone books I've read I find so disappointing. Especially as there are strong series emerging. Not all can be winners.

Bottom line: i don't recommend this book. 4 out of ten points.

This was a great sequel to branigans land. I really enjoyed meeting some of the characters again and they deal with the new problems. I easily became hooked on this exciting story and loved all the action, fights and the hunting down the bad guys. It wasn't quite as good as the first novel but was definitely worth it's 4 star rating. In this novel ty highly dependent on his children to deal with problems. It was great reading about the next generation of law fighting to defend their land. I especially loved the bar scene where he son stood up to the fastest gun slinger. I definitely recommend this book if you love the old style western stories. This story was well developed. 

It was easy to connect with the characters and love them. This book had plenty of atmosphere created by the authors great description. It was definitely an exciting and thrilling roller coaster ride. 

So much praise goes out to the author and publishers for creating such an action packed novel. I will definitely be looking out for more books by this fantastic author. 
The above review has already been placed on goodreads, waterstones, Google books, Barnes&noble, kobo, amazon UK where found and my blog today https://ladyreading365.wixsite.com/website/post/mean-and-evil-by-ww-ja-johnstone-kensington-4-stars either under my name or ladyreading365

I was glad to be finished with this one at the end. The whole story is very surface-level, all tell and I show. The characters are underdeveloped and the plot a bit weak. If you really enjoy gunfights you may have some fun, but even those are hackneyed and sporadic

I like this new series by William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone. Mean and Evil is the second book about Ty Brannigan and his family. In this series a lot of the story is about his children growing up in a harsh environment, but also some things about Ty and his wife. I like the fact that it gives a new view on the classical western. I also like the fact that it's not only the men that is strong and can deal out justice from the barrel of a gun. I must thank Netgalley, Pinnacle and Kensington for giving me this advance copy for review.

In this novel entitled "Mean and Evil" has gunfighter Ty Brannigan cum rancher. The Johnstone group has a hit on its hands. Brannigan and his Powderhorn spread in the Wyoming Bear Paw Range is the scene for Brannigan and his family to take on nefarious people bent on no good. A lot of this action is forced on the famil as they seem to prefer to just do their ranching way of life.

The novel introduces not only Brannigan's older children, but younger ones who have found themselves in dangerous circumstances. The novel moves swiftly and holds the reader's attention as the climax approaches in a gun battle with a gang of outlaws determined to do harm to the Brannigans. The climactic scene introduces some expected as well as unexpected results.

"Mean and Evil" is a fun read that will hold the reader's attention with lots of action.and a few twists and turns that might be unexpected. I definitely recommend this one.

Mean and Evil, book two from the A Brannigan's Land Western series, is another great book by Johnstone. Four stars.