While The Town Slept is the third book in the Tim Coulter western series by William W Johnstone in J a Johnstone, while tracking robbers Tim and Jeb find a Secret Service man on the virge of death. Before taking his last breath he tells Tim Coulter and Jim Reno to trust no one and give them the first clue when he says Dugan. Tim knows this is about President Grant visiting Cheyenne in with Jake Dugan involved it’s going to be an assassination of yet another great president. Leaving Jeb in Cheyenne to learn all he can about the conspiracy Tim does the last thing he thought he would ever do in this life that is breakout Patsy Palmer one of the worst most vicious people he’s ever fought and she’s a woman but break her out he does. Before the stories over Tim will have multiple injuries mostly due to Patsy but will also be there for her redemption while Jeb is in Cheyenne falling in love with a woman who has many names, almost as many as her disguises and skills. Jeb finds just as many Confederates in Cheyenne as Tim does at the Dugan gang hold up but will be a be able to stop the catastrophe they’re planning? There is way more to the story is always with a Johnstone western there’s mini plots in subplot and I could spin my every day all day reading them and seem never to run out of great stories. I love these westerns their detail to history the great characters awesome writing and entertaining stories. Needless to say I definitely recommend this book and there’s always yet again I cannot wait for the next one. #NetGalley, #KensingtonAndPinnacleBooks, #WilliamAJohnstone, #JAJohnstone, #WhileTheTownSlept, #TimColter,

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.

In William Johnstone et al's latest classic western, While the Town Slept (Pinnacle 2024), Deputy US Marshal Tim Colter and his mountain man partner, Jed Reno, stumble onto a plot to kill US President Grant. They drop their current task--chasing train robbers--to track down nameless potential killers on an unknown date and location with almost no clues and no one they can trust to help. Despite that, Colter hatches a plan to find answers, but an unusual one he can't share with anyone other than Jed. Because he doesn't believe the nascent USA can handle yet another assassination (with Lincoln still so recent), he bets everything including his life on his skill to stop the assassination.

The atmosphere of the story is pure old west with every page imbued with the sights and smells of that world. It is fast moving though fractured at times, enough I found myself lost a bit trying to connect the dots. I love the descriptive bits, but there were cases where there were so many, it got in the way of following the story. Overall, a good read.