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.

I totally adore westerns and cannot get enough of the Johnstone books. I'm glad there are a ton of them1! This book is another great addition to the western genre. It's a wonder anyone made it through with all of the shootings and killings during this time period. This is another must read book if you love Westerns.

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

preacher and trouble go hand in hand in this book

its action all the way when preacher agrees to escort a wagon train out into indian country, even though knowing that the men going with him would struggle against the elements and the indians, but it was a certain white man that preacher was interested in...

shaw an english man is up to something and though preacher sees signs of old camps he knows sooner or later they are all going to meet up

and when they do its explosive....

well worth a read just like the old western movies keeps you entertained

William Johnston a prolific author who was known for his westerns. Moreover, he wrote more than western; he penned suspense novels along with men’s literature. 2004, William Johnstone passed away at the age of 65. Fortunately, the novels were continued by J.A. Johnstone. She took over the series for her uncle.
This novel was the 28th in the ‘Mountain Man’ series, and the first of the ‘The Mountain Man’ series was published in 1984.
‘Preacher’s Purge’ was the first novel of the western genre that I have read. As a reviewer, I need to reach out to genres that I would not normally read. Although, the novel was a part of a series, I never felt lost. The author’s writing was engaging and kept my attention throughout the novel. I especially enjoyed the authors’ character study, I am a character driven reader, it is important me that I can visualize the character as I am reading.

I have noted some of the few characters.
Tom Kittle was short squat man with square shoulders. He made his money in a warehouse along Fell’s point, Baltimore.
Kent McDermid he was blonde, good looking, and was a banker
Hiram Kirkland a guide with thick gray beard
Anthony Humboldt a hunter married to Opalinep
The star of the novel Preacher Chouteau was tall and dapper,50-year-old man
I assume that Tall Dog would have been the name of Preacher’s cur, but not the case. The dog’s name was Dog and was an important character. “Preacher had told Dog to stay with Horse”
Thank you, William w John stone and j. A. Johnstone, Pinnacle Books, and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this book in return for an honest review.

Preacher horse and dog are acompaning in Man and Mr. Cooper to establish a trading post in Indian territory and of course the travel will not be easy. They run into horse thieves And a fierce outlaw gang that doesn’t want anyone settling in the area. I love William and J John Stones book they always start with a gun fight and then with the gun fight his characters always have grit in carry their self like a man who knows he’s a man. Preacher is the man who taught smokeJensen’s everything he knows and so it was a nice treat to read about preacher again. It has been a while and I’m so glad I read this book. If you love great westerns then you need to read preachers perch by the John stones you won’t be disappointed. I loved it as I always do. I received this book from NetGalley and pinnacle press but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

After some lackluster to bad Johnstone Clan books in 2022, they smash out of the park with this latest Preacher entry. The story is what I've been hoping to see from the ghost writers. Ah, to only hope that regard for the 20th anniversary of William Johnstone's death, 2023, will see a flood of this quality from here on out..... I can hope, can't I? :)

The book has a ton of moving parts skillfully maneuvered to a cogent story and fine resolution. As I read of so many characters and groups of characters and so many goals and so many dreams, I figured this HAS to turn into a mess. Just saw it happen in a recent Johnstone book. Nope. It more than worked out.

A huge plus are the historical notes and the context of the settings provided. A true rarity in a Johnstone book. There is a little playing with history here, but legions better than most of the recently published non-fiction I've read this past year. Is that a frustrating thought! I can better trust the history in fiction than non-fiction!

One to note: Reading the book before this would likely help in better grasping how the main characters get to where they started. Though, I have not read that one, yet.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 9 out of 10 points.
Also, access early to this book was via NetGalley.com

Preacher’s Purge
To get close enough to a group of foreign soldiers (without raising too much suspicion) to determine what their purpose in the area is, Preacher and a couple of his mountaineering buddies take on an already doomed mission to lead a group of settlers out to set up a trading post….on grounds sacred to the Sioux. Will they have enough skill, luck, smarts, and good medicine to get out with their hair, and their lives? Another good Preacher read. I received an ARC of this through Netgalley and this is my review.

Preacher is one of my favorite characters from William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone and Preacher's Purge is a great western. it is set in the earlier stages of his life as a mountain man and it has all the ingredients you expect from this genre. I like the evolution with this character and the different kinds of equipment he uses through his life, it's like a evolution of things in the settling of the west. I must thank #Netgalley Kensington Books and Pinnacle for letting me read this book.

Preacher's Purge is another great read by Johnstone. I enjoyed reading this western and of course will be looking for more by this author in the future. Four stars.

In Preacher's Purge (Pinnacle Books 2022), Book 28 of William Johnstone's Preacher/The First Mountain Man series, Preacher and his traveling companions, Tall Owl and Lorenzo, plan to spend a few days relaxing at a fort after a difficult job. As often happens, a friendly drink at the local saloon ends up in their being imprisoned for a fight they didn't start. Their get-out-of-jail-free card is that they lead a wagon train with engineers and Eastern businessmen intent on setting up a trading post in the middle of Sioux ceremonial lands. Preacher turns it down at first as a hopeless venture until he finds that a woman will be going along who will need protecting and another man has been lost and the group is hoping to find him. Preacher gathers a few hard men he knows he can count on and sets out, hoping the trip isn't as bad as he expects it to be.

It is.

Preacher stories are always interesting with big fights, impossible odds, angry Indians, and Preacher trying to balance who should die and who needs saving. His morals are unquestionable, his values commendable, but in the Wild West, what's right and moral doesn't always matter. It falls to Preacher to find fair solutions where none seem to exist. This is another great story I thoroughly enjoyed.

This is another book in the "Preacher" series by the Johnstone family. This one is a little different that some of the other Preacher stories. Here he, along with a couple of friends, take on the dubious task of guiding a group of Easterners deep into Sioux/Blackfeet country to establish a trading post.

While this might ordinarily be OK the group lacks any real leadership and the overbearing wife of one of them creates untold issues, including wanting her husband to kill Preacher!! But being the man he is and once he has agreed, albeit reluctantly, to lead them, he does his best to keep them alive not only from the Native Americans who might not want them there to a group of British mercenaries that are looking for gold in what will become known as the Black Hills of SD.

Preacher, along with his human companions as well as Horse and Dog are put to the test with mostly greenhorns to lead but with men who try to exert control. There is a lot of death and killing as one might expect in a Western novel set in this time in a wild area.

Definitely recommend it, especially if you like reading about Preacher and his exploits. It reads rather quickly and is hard to put down once you start. The reader wants to know what issue is next!!